Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Evarts City Council heard an update on the city’s water situation during a recent special called meeting for November.

Mayor Eddie Manning called on Evarts City Water Department supervisor Woody Fields to bring the council up to speed.

“We did have some sealant work done,” Fields said. “Some tiles and things needed replaced. They had been there since the plant was built…all the lights have been replaced, so we can see a lot better.”

According to Fields, the city’s water system is currently seeing a large amount of water loss.

“Whatever the issue is, it’s significant,” Fields said.

Woods explained they are aware of the probable location of the problem leading to the water loss.

“We’re still looking for exactly what the problem is,” Fields said. “It could very well be at the river crossing…that’s the main reason why water loss is up.”

Woods noted his department has been working with the Kentucky Rural Water Association (KRWA) to correct the issue and hopes to have the problem resolved soon.

“I was hoping we would find something when (KRWA) got here. We’ve been able to narrow it down, and we’ve eliminated a lot, but we’ve not been able to find exactly what the issue is,” Fields said. “But we’ve got an area where we know the problems are, so that’s a little bit of good news.”

Manning advised the council the Harlan County Fiscal Court has agreed to make some funding available to address the water issues.

“I told (Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley) if you’ll help us with this, I’ll make sure we take the money we have put back for that, and we’ll work on getting the water department up and running,” Manning said. “They were gracious enough to help us. We appreciate the fiscal court for that.”

Fields noted the fiscal court has ranked Evarts water and sewer projects as a top priority, which will assist the city’s ability to secure grants and other funding to improve the water systems.

“I was able to get our water and sewer projects up to number one in the county,” Fields said. “At the end of the month, we’ll be doing the regional rankings. What that does is that gives you more clout when you send in applications for what you’re trying to do…if we can get our ranking high in the region, that will give us better opportunity to get loans, grants, and anything else.”

Manning mentioned the city’s water system is currently meeting demand with the assistance of multiple river pumps.

“As far as water goes, we’re holding our own. We’re actually doing OK with those river pumps,” Manning said. “Putting the river pumps in has been a blessing. That’s the only reason we’ve not had major water outages this fall like we did last year. I know we can’t depend on that forever, but it sure has been a blessing for us to be able to keep people in water this fall.”

The council then approved a motion to accept the water report.