Keeping the faucet on to prevent frozen pipes? Don’t, EKY towns tell residents
Two neighboring communities in Eastern Kentucky are telling their residents to conserve water immediately because supplies are dwindling after days of sub-freezing temperatures
Faucets left on to prevent frozen pipes have drawn down water tanks in Booneville and Hazard, according to city officials.
A tank that supplies water to a hospital, long-term veterans care facility and the regional jail in Perry County is at a critically low level, the Hazard utilities department announced Thursday. A separate tank in the Grapevine community is also critically low.
The department made the decision Thursday to shut off valves in an area of the county north of Hazard near the Wendell H. Ford Airport. County officials began distributing bottled water to residents in that area later that afternoon.
Population increase exceeds available infrastructure
The Coal Fields Industrial Park and residential areas north of it in Perry County have experienced explosive growth since devastating 2022 floods wiped out lowland areas elsewhere in the county.
The area’s demand for potable water has increased 22% since this time last year, Hazard City Manager Tony Eversole told the Herald-Leader on Friday.
“After the floods, we were one of the few areas that saw real growth,” Eversole said.
But the rise in population has officially exceeded available infrastructure in the area, he added. The city operates one water treatment plant authorized to produce 5 million gallons of water per day. Eversole said the plant is at max capacity and has been for a while.
Meanwhile, the city recently broke ground on a new water treatment plant that will draw off the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River west of town. City and county leaders secured more than $10 million in state and federal grant dollars to complete the project in addition to a new below-ground water tank to serve growth in and around the airport.
The city of Booneville in Owsley County to the northwest began noticing significant drawdown on its water system shortly after Hazard on Thursday. The city posted on Facebook that tank levels have been slowly dropping since the cold snap began.
“We think part of the problem is customers running water to keep their pipes from freezing,” the city said in its post. “This usually isn’t a problem for a few days, but we are at a week now and the system is at its limit with several more days of cold weather to go.”
What to do instead of running water
Instead of running water, the city advised residents to keep cabinet doors open to allow indoor heating to warm exposed pipes.
The city said it has been running its water treatment plant continuously since the cold temperatures began and cannot produce anymore. County residents are encouraged to check for water leaks on their properties.
Officials with the Letcher County Water and Sewer District southeast of Perry County is also instructing residents to check for leaks, and staff are scouring the county for supply-line leaks. There has been no significant disruption to residential water in the county so far, however, an employee told the Herald-Leader Friday.
Temperatures in Southeastern Kentucky have remained at or below freezing for more than a week now since Winter Storm Fern dropped heavy snow and ice across much of Kentucky last weekend. Light snow continues to fall in the easternmost stretches of Appalachian Kentucky leading into this weekend.
The extreme cold could begin to let up slightly in Eastern Kentucky as early as next week, according to the National Weather Service.
This is a developing story that may be updated.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 12:30 PM.
