Their water is dirty and unreliable. Here’s how Kentucky lawmakers are responding.

Amid reports of dirty water and long outages in Martin County and elsewhere in Eastern Kentucky, state legislators have filed resolutions aimed at preventing the collapse of small water districts.

Two nearly identical resolutions — one in the House and one in the Senate — would establish a legislative task force to identify faltering water districts and study ways to prevent their financial and operational downfall.

Many small water districts throughout Kentucky have struggled to maintain their aging water lines, leading to outages that have, in some cases, left residents without running water for days or weeks at a time.

Residents, particularly in Martin County, have said they’re often forced to collect rainwater to deal with these outages. In other counties, including Harlan and Floyd counties, complaints filed with the Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates most utilities, show residents there have also experienced long outages and quality problems.

Martin County represents “the first of what is going to be many failures of these small systems around the state, particularly in struggling counties that have seen a decline in county revenue and population,” said state Rep. Chris Harris, D-Forest Hills, who sponsored the House resolution with Reps. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, John Blanton, R-Salyersville, and Kathy Hinkle, D-Louisa.

The task force would meet monthly and submit any recommendations for legislative changes by the end of this year.

Its goals include developing policy options to create stronger oversight of water districts and finding ways to intervene before a district faces risk of collapse.

In Eastern Kentucky, a number of water districts continually fail to meet quality requirements set by the federal Safe Water Drinking Act.

Most of the quality violations come from “disinfection byproducts,” chemicals created during the treatment process that could, over long exposure periods, lead to health problems in certain sensitive populations, including elderly people and small children, according to a water expert with the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Many residents in Appalachian Kentucky have reported a more obvious quality problem: dirty water coming out the tap.

In a Herald-Leader series published last year, multiple Eastern Kentucky residents said they’ve seen their tap water stay muddy for days.

“When they start having that trouble, it’s brown for a long time,” David Wilburn, a Harlan County resident, told the newspaper last year.

Brown water is often the result of cracks or leaks in water lines. As the water pressure in the lines changes, that fluctuation can draw dirt and groundwater into the lines.

Water districts have struggled to maintain these failing lines as their budgets have shrunk.

As people leave rural areas, particularly Eastern Kentucky, the number of ratepayers drops (most funding for water districts comes from customers). That leaves districts to either raise rates or rely more heavily on grants and low-interest loans.

Robin Webb, the Democratic state senator who represents Boyd, Carter and Greenup counties, said of Martin County: “Those people deserve better.”

Webb, who sponsored the Senate resolution, once worked at underground and surface coal mines in Martin County.

“Those are truly my people and I do feel like Martin County has given and given and given until they’re broken,” Webb said. “We owe them an extraordinary debt.”

As Eastern Kentucky transitions from its reliance on the declining coal industry, the region will need reliable and clean drinking water if it hopes to attract tourists and new industry, Webb said.

“We’re not going to get tourism benefits if people can’t drink the water,” Webb said.

Harris said he hopes the task force will study whether the PSC is adequately funded and has the staff to accomplish its regulatory mission.

Over the past 10 years, the PSC’s authorized expenditures, set by the state in its biennial budget, have dropped by 20 percent, or $2.3 million. Its staffing levels have fallen by 40 percent during the same time period.

“We can’t continue to cut and cut these agencies and then hold our heads up in the air and say, ‘What happened?’” Harris said. “Red tape reduction is a good catch phrase, but a lot of times when you reduce regulations you lose the oversight and you see people in peril, and that’s what you’re seeing in Martin County.”

Andrew Melnykovych, the PSC spokesman, said in a statement to the Herald-Leader that the PSC appreciates that legislators are seeking solutions to problems affecting small water districts, and that the commission “has been addressing issues related to small water systems for some time and has intensified those efforts in recent years.”

“The PSC would hate to see these well-intentioned legislative efforts result in duplication of programs and initiatives among existing agencies,” Melnykovych said. “Instead, we would hope the ultimate outcome of current legislative efforts would facilitate better coordination among the regulatory and other entities that are already engaged with small water systems.”

Another resolution, filed by Webb, urges the PSC and the state Energy and Environment Cabinet to find solutions for Martin County’s financial and operational problems, and supports increasing the authority of the PSC to intervene in water district operations.

That resolution also calls for a review of former Gov. Paul Patton’s 2020 Vision — which aimed to provide water service for all Kentuckians by 2020 — “given that many of the small drinking water systems remain fragmented, poorly subscribed, and without proper oversight and management.”

Attorney General Andy Beshear said he thinks the resolutions “are a good step,” and that “there needs to be more mechanisms to step in and stop a situation like Martin County Water from happening.”

In December, his office recommended that the PSC place the Martin County Water District in “receivership” — a move that would transfer control of the district to an outside utility or corporation.

“Every Kentuckian deserves safe and affordable drinking water,” said Beshear, a Democratic candidate for governor this year. “We have seen whether it’s the Martin County situation or others, that that’s not the case.”

Beshear also supports House Bill 16, which would allow the PSC to consider affordability when utilities petition it for higher rates.

“One really important piece that has to be addressed and has to be talked about is affordability,” said Mary Cromer, an attorney with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center who represents a citizens group in Martin County. “I think that’s absolutely critical.”

As regulators and legislators determine the best ways to bring water districts into compliance, and improve their general financial stability, Cromer said ratepayers in Martin County cannot afford to bear the full brunt of that transition.

“We’re grateful that whats happening in Martin County is receiving the attention it needs at the legislature,” Cromer said. “What’s happening in Martin County is likely to occur in other water districts throughout the state.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 11:45 AM.