Kerr is treasurer of the Martin County Water District, a utility that’s made national news amid reports of poor water quality and long outages that have left hundreds of families without running water for days at a time.
The crisis?
Whether people in this mountainous and economically distressed region will have access to clean, reliable and affordable drinking water in the coming years.
You’re gonna start seeing these things pop up all over the country.” While Martin County has received more attention than other water districts, people from across Eastern Kentucky tell similar stories: brown water coming out of their taps; outages that leave families struggling to bathe their children; water bills that keep getting higher, leaving people in one of the poorest parts of the country wondering how long they’ll be able to afford city water.
In some cases, districts refused to raise rates gradually even at the request of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates most utilities in Kentucky.
We can’t take out a loan,” Kerr said.
“Grants, anything like that we can get our hands on, yes, absolutely we’ll get every dollar that we can.” Sandra Dunahoo, chair of the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority and commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Local Government, offers a more optimistic story of water infrastructure in Kentucky.
Then-governor Paul Patton made a plan to provide adequate and clean drinking water to every Kentuckian by 2020, saying “An adequate source of safe, clean drinking water is nothing to get upset about unless you don’t happen to have any; then it becomes a matter of life and death.” Much of that progress has come from projects funded by low-interest loans through state and federal agencies, and through grants awarded by organizations like the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Since 1990, the authority has awarded about $597 million through a federally assisted wastewater revolving loan fund, and more than $717 million through a safe drinking water revolving loan fund, along with more than $48 million of grant money.
In some districts with high rates of water loss, including districts in Floyd County, Martin County and Harlan County, residents have reported spending days without running water.