BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Imagine 352.85-million gallons of water — about 114 times the capacity of the Curtis Crum Reservoir. Not raw river water but treated drinking water – leaking from the Martin County Water District distribution system.

That is the amount of water the MCWD lost in the first 10 months of 2021, even though Alliance Water Resources reported repairing over 300 water line leaks in that time.

“What exactly is wrong with our water lines?” MCWD board member Lee Mueller asked Alliance personnel during a meeting last week. “Are they just old?”

Alliance local manager Craig Miller told Mueller the problem was due to aging infrastructure and poor installation of water lines.

“Poor installation, meaning we fixed a leak in Beauty on the ditch line side across from the post office a couple of weeks ago,” said Miller. “When we dug the leak up, the main water line was trenched in solid rock.

“As that water goes through that line and it’s vibrating against solid rock, over time it’s going to rub a hole in it, it’s going to crack. It’s going to put pressure on it and break the line. We’re seeing that time and time and time again,” he added.

The district did not use gravel to bed water lines in the past, according to Miller.

“In the past and admittedly in the beginning when we were here, without having access to gravel, the guys were putting spoils back on top of the mains,” Miller said. “When you put wet spoils back into a repair, if you’ve got any rocks in there, those rocks are just going to vibrate right back down to the main. . . . Then vibration over time causes another break.”

Mueller had more questions.

“How much longer is this going to have to go on?” Mueller queried.

Miller replied, “A very long time.”

“There’s got to be a light at the end of this tunnel somewhere,” Mueller told Miller.

“Without capital to replace lines, as in total line replacement, it’s going to take a long time,” said Miller.

Fixing that infrastructure will not be cheap.

MCWD Board chairperson Jimmy Don Kerr told Mueller that it would cost an estimated $55 million just to replace the lines in the system.

“Who made that estimate?” Mueller asked.

Kerr said it was one of the district’s engineering companies.

Miller corrected Kerr, saying $55 million was for all repairs in the system.

“A vast majority of that was line replacement,” said Miller.

Miller suggested taps that are not in use are a problem.

“Service lines where homes get torn down or taken away and the service line doesn’t get completely removed — if the service line doesn’t get removed back to the main, then that service line is sitting there with water in it and, in time, it’s going to break,” stated Miller. “If you don’t know it’s there, then you may not find that leak.”

Mueller posed his next question.

“Can you give us an idea about how much improvement in water quality that all this line replacement is providing?” Mueller asked.

 “We’re not seeing an improvement in water loss like I would like, by any stretch of the imagination,” stated Miller. “As far as quality goes, our water quality meets all the state and federal standards, but I can’t give you a magic number.”

“I think customers just want to know and be reassured that it’s safe,” said Mueller.

“I understand. Any more questions about that?” Miller asked Mueller.

“Until we convince our customers that the water quality is good, we just have to keep doing our job, try to do the right thing and the best job we can,” Miller added.

“That’s the basis for my question, thank you,” said Mueller.

MCWD’s water loss rate was 77.7 percent in October.

In other business:

–Miller said Alliance was getting all information to FEMA for reimbursement on five projects, three of which amounted to $103,000. He did not say what the remaining two projects cost.

One FEMA reimbursement project included a variable frequency device at the 40 east booster station following the ice storm in February.

–Miller reported that staff recently rebuilt the Buck Creek pressure-reducing valve.

“We believe the Buck Creek PRV was causing some of the breaks in the Warfield area, specifically the Lovely break that you all are aware of,” he said.

–Miller reported 41 water leaks repaired in October, only one of which was a main line break.

“These leak numbers aren’t representative of the one in Lovely, which was much, much bigger,” said Miller.

–Miller talked about customer complaints regarding fluctuations in their bills, saying the problem was due to Alliance’s inability to timely read meters.

“One of the problems that we’ve run into is when we do the all-hands-on-deck, everybody reading meters in a week,” said Miller. “If we have a leak, whether it’s caused by somebody or whether it just breaks, we have to leave meter reading and take three to five members of our crew, depending on who it is, to where the leak is to fix the leak. And that will take the entire day of meter reading.”

Miller said when meter reading dates change, it causes multiple problems, including frustrated customers who get a bill for three weeks one month and possibly four weeks the next month.

Beginning Dec. 1, Alliance will designate a crew to do nothing but read meters, and each meter will be read the same day every month.

–Miller said the improvement projects at the water treatment plant and raw water intake are moving more quickly than expected.

–Eric Ratliff addressed the board about hazard mitigation grant program applications for generators.

“We submitted an initial application to FEMA during Disaster 4497 for nine hundred and sixty-some thousand dollars,” said Ratliff. “We submitted it, and it got approved … When we went back through that, there were some numbers that we were not able to get. So, when we got with Fishbeck, the cost was almost doubled. For just the raw water intake and the generator for Route 40 east and Route 40 west, it went up to almost $2 million.”

Kentucky Emergency Management advised the district would have to stick with the amount in the original application. Ratliff said that cuts the raw water intake generator from the funds.

“The application is due Dec. 1,” stated Ratliff. “If we don’t have the information submitted by Dec. 1, they will say you will just have to wait for the next disaster. . . . I really need it Monday. . . . We’ve just got to get it in.”

–The board approved an amendment to Alliance’s contract increasing the repair cap limit by $30,000, from $125,000 to $155,000.