Water District Holds Town Hall Meeting: "We're Gonna Be Alright"

Rep. Michael Meredith speaks at a town hall meeting at the Community Center on May 9, 2024.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
The Edmonson County Water District held a town hall meeting on Thursday, May 9th at 5:30PM in the Edmonson County Community Center to address public concerns over the ongoing dam removal project on the Green River at Lock No. 5, along with current water supply and quality matters. Edmonson County Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey welcomed the crowd of about 30 people to the meeting as he introduced a panel of guests that included state representatives, state senators, local water officials, regional government officials, and reps from federal legislators Brett Guthrie and Mitch McConnell.

District 19 State Representative Michael Meredith was the first to speak on the evening and gave a basic recap of the beginning of some of Edmonson County's water problem origins, that began in 2014 when the U.S. Corps of Engineers began discussing the possibilities of removing dams at Lock No. 6 in Brownsville and No. 5 in Roundhill.

"At the time, I wrote a public comment letter on behalf of the citizens of Edmonson County asking that it not happen," Rep. Meredith told the audience. "I was concerned that there would be issues with our water system at the time. The Corps came back with estimates stating, expert engineers saying, that would not be the case. We saw during low water conditions after the dam removal was started, that those estimations were wrong. Barry Rich was instrumental at pooling a group together at that time to go down and meet with the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, the Water District, local officials, and our federal officials to start trying to find a remedy, or what we could do."

Those estimations from the Corp were the basis of why Congress gave them the funding and authority to remove the dams, but despite the fact that they were wrong, the dam removal process is still ongoing for multiple reasons. One, they were no longer safe to be on the river due to their age and deterioration, and two, Congress passed a law that requires their removal. Undoing all of it is virtually impossible at this point, and the side effects affect all sides.

Last night's meeting was to not only answer any questions from the public, but so local, state, and federal officials could speak to the plan to mitigate the effects, find solutions, and work together to see them through.

Newly hired General Manager of the Edmonson County Water District Kevin Shaw was very optimistic and assured the audience that District would in fact, be able to provide clean drinking water to their customers, despite these challenges.

On March 28th, Rep. Meredith announced $6.5M in funding available to Edmonson County for  water improvement projects, thanks to the KY General Assembly, and gave an explanation of that process.

Rep. Michael Meredith speaks alongside EC Water District General Manager Kevin Shaw.

Meredith broke down the funding into three areas: one, is $1M for the capability for northern Edmonson County to be able to connect to Grayson County's system when the system is under strain, two is a $3.5M round of funding that can be used as a portion of matching funds for a new intake system in Brownsville as a result of lower water levels.

"Congressman Guthrie's Office went to work on that, from the time we got clarity on that from the Corps of Engineers to pursue federal funding for that project, but like almost any other kind of federal funding today, federal funding requires some sort of a local match requirement. That is a $14M intake structure on the Green River that would replace the current intake structure. Congressman Guthrie's Office is pursuing those funds, currently, through their process..." Meredith said.

He added that he continues the work to ensure that any funds required to build the new intake system will not be placed on the Edmonson County Water District or local government.

The final portion of the funding was a $2M round that will go to Edmonson County Fiscal Court, with the help of KY Senator David Givens, that can cover emergency infrastructure upgrades that are needed during this process.

EC Water District General Manager Kevin Shaw answers a question from a local resident.

Kevin Shaw then addressed the crowd and said he felt like the most important route to take was to not talk too much about what has happened in the past, but look to where the entire community has to go for the future. He credited the staff of the Water District for their work and effort in the midst of adversity.

"The elephant in the room is the Green River project and the things that are going on with the Corps of Engineers project," he said. "What I'm going to tell you is, don't worry about it. We're gonna be alright."

Shaw didn't have exact details to present on where every penny will be spent or a precise scope of all the work to be done, and he also said he couldn't speak on matters of the Corps, who were invited to the meeting. They did not attend because the meeting wasn't specific to Corps-only project, and local officials determined that it wouldn't benefit them much to attend, since the project is already in stone and will be moving forward sometime toward the end of July, Shaw said.

Shaw continued to explain that based on his 40 years of experience in utilities, he was confident that all the resources and tools are available to keep Edmonson County and other Water District customers supplied with safe water, period.

A current worst case scenario would be after the dam is removed, that water levels are too low for the intake to bring water to the treatment plant. The Nature Conservancy has funded a $100K commercial grade, diesel pump that can pump the water anywhere along the river to the treatment facility. Shaw said it's enough to take care of the district needs for all their customers in the event a long term solution is not yet in place.

Kylie Foushee, Economic Development Director from the office Congressman Guthrie, also discussed the timeline of how Guthrie's office has been involved in the process from the beginning, including temporarily halting the dam removal at Lock No. 5 until other solutions could be put in place.

"When we started hearing (Lock No.) 6 failed, and started hearing 'our water level is impacted,' Congressman Guthrie immediately said 'stop the removal, please stop the removal,' and the Corps of Engineers immediately did so and he strongly encouraged all partners not to move forward with any removal of dams until a solution has been identified, and we have been reassured that this interim solution that's continued to be mentioned, the diesel pump, will be a good interim solution," Foushee said.

Several other questions were asked from the crowd pertaining to Green River Ferry, other Corps-related topics, and some that pertained to Fish and Wildlife, but local officials could not answer any of those, as the meeting was focused on Edmonson County Water District and their customers.

Edmonson County Judge/Executive Scott Lindsey said he felt like the meeting went very well and he was glad to see all the state and federal legislators in attendance.

"We've got a lot of support at the table right now that wants this to be successful," he said. "We're thankful that so many people are working together to find solutions. We're also glad for everyone else that attended. Those are the people we serve and that's why we're in office, to serve the communities of Edmonson County."

General Manager Kevin Shaw agreed that the meeting was successful.

"I thought it went really well," he said. "Glad for the questions that were asked and hopefully we provided the information that folks need. Like I said, in my heart of hearts, I believe we're gonna be alright."