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The city of Evarts’ water system has long been experiencing issues, with frequent outages leading to a current state of emergency due to water outages in the Cloverfork area.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley addressed the state of emergency during a press conference on Monday.

“Thank you for joining us here at the Harlan County Courthouse today related to the state of emergency that continues in Harlan County related to the Clover Fork water outage situation,” Mosley said.

Mosley mentioned multiple water outages have occurred across the county in the last couple of weeks, many due to recent sub-zero temperatures. The communities of Wallins, Bledsoe, Baxter, Big Laurel and Rosspoint were all impacted.

“Fortunately, repairs have been made to the breaks that occurred that impacted those communities,” Mosley said.

Mosley said the state of emergency related to the Cloverfork water outage will continue for the foreseeable future.

“The city of Evarts has a water treatment plant that was constructed 30 to 35 years ago,” Mosley said. “That treatment plant serviced about 1,100 customers within the city limits of Evarts as well as Verda, Jones Creek, through Evarts going toward where Black Mountain Elementary school is now, and up to Shields, which is several miles outside the city of Evarts.”

The Harlan County Detention Center and the Hope Center were later added to the city of Evarts water system. An additional 600 customers were added to the system through the Black Mountain Utility District (BMUD).

Mosley explained the Shields area is at a higher elevation than Evarts, which requires the system to rely on water to be pumped to customers at Luellen, Closplint and Holmes Mill.

“Evarts has to have water in their branch tank to the tune of 45 feet to get it to Laural Branch,” Mosley said. “It has to have a certain level in Laurel Branch to get it to Shields, and Shields has to be at a certain level to get it to where BMUD can pump it on to Luellen, Closplint and Holmes Mill.”

Mosley explained Evarts began noticing a decline in water coming into the system. At that time, the city attempted to drill additional wells to improve the flow going to the treatment plant.

“In August of 2022, the sources declined to a level that caused the Evarts to not be able to meet demand,” Mosley said. “Last year, after they made it through the hard times of August through November of 2022, the mine source and the well source picked back up from January until about July of 2023. During that time…the outages were fewer until dryer conditions set in in the Fall.”

Mosley explained Evarts began pulling water from the river to meet demand. However, the river is often muddy and the city’s water plant was not designed to treat muddy water.

Mosley noted more than 40 outages since August 2022, leading to multiple emergency declarations by the city of Evarts and Harlan County.

“The people from Luellen to Holmes Mill have suffered the greatest,” Mosley said. “And when I say suffered, I mean suffered. I’ve talked to people who are elderly, people who are sick, people who are dialysis patients, people who have cancer. It is heartbreaking.”

The large amount of water loss inside the city of Evarts adds to the problem.

“Water loss is calculated by the amount of water that is lost in the system before it ever gets to your home or business,” Mosley said. “Last year, Evarts had a water loss of approximately 30 percent…four weeks ago it was communicated to me Evarts water loss had exceeded 55 percent…undoubtedly, with what we experienced in the two winter storms we experience…that situation has gotten worse.”

Mosley noted many customers had to have water shut off due to pipes breaking because of low temperatures.

“We requested the Division of Water and the Kentucky Rural Water Association to come in on Tuesday of last week to provide assistance,” Mosley said. “There have been 22 locations where water loss had been addressed…those repairs alone have regained 120 gallons per minute back into the system.”

Mosley said they are looking into the possibility of moving the river pumps to Yokum Creek which does not havde the mud issues suffered by the current pump location. He also mentioned an Osmosis Purification System has been requested.

“This is a mobile treatment plant that is operated by the Kentucky National Guard,” Mosley said. “We have requested that; it has not been approved at this point at the state level. However, we feel like if we can implement this osmosis purification system perhaps at the Highsplint lake that it will provide the ability to inject water back into the lines and get it on up the river.”

Possible ways to improve the system include replacing the water system’s telemetry system, a new storage tank, and a new water treatment plant.

“A water treatment plant is necessary,” Mosley said. “Grants have been applied for that purpose by the city…both of those were denied…Funding was applied for through the direct Abandoned Mine Lands program, it was denied, there was an appeal filed, the appeal is under review, and it is my hope the appeal will be overturned, and Evarts will qualify for a treatment plant through that fund. If it does not, Senator (Johnnie) Turner and Representative (Adam) Bowling have been very engaged in this situation over the last year and have requested a budget line-item request be filed.”

Mosley said the request is for approximately $8.5 million.

“I believe there needs to be significant line replacements inside the city,” Mosley said. “There needs to be significant focus on leak detection. That is the most immediate thing the city can do to insure this nightmare goes away.”

Mosley mentioned he has spoken with Evarts Mayor Eddie Manning concerning the situation.

“He and I have a close friendship…and a mutual understanding,” Mosley said. “Water loss has to decrease. And the only way it can decrease is we aren’t just looking for leaks in a crisis…leak detection has to occur every day.”

Harlan County Emergency Management Director David McGill took the podium to provide information on available water for residents of the impacted areas.

“We have three locations within Cloverfork,” McGill said. “That is at the Cloverfork Fire Department, that will be taking place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The Evarts Fire Department from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, and the Yocum Creek Fire Department, they are giving water out from 11 a.m. until people stop coming.”

For updates and water distribution locations, go to the Harlan County Emergency Management Facebook page.