Water, water everywhere. So why are Central KY communities limiting water use?
It may seem counterintuitive. Water is everywhere, except your faucets, bathtubs and washing machines.
That’s been the case for a handful of communities in Kentucky as of mid-Monday due to the historic floods seen in Central and Western Kentucky after an unprecedented and soggy four-day rain marathon.
Mercer County has shut down its water system. Anderson County did the same on Sunday before getting it back up. Other Central Kentucky communities, such as Nicholasville, Versailles and Franklin County, were running on reserves Monday.
Why? It all has to do with the water intake systems.
To defy gravity and pump water into a system – sending it from a reservoir or, in many of these cases, a river; treating it; then piping it to your faucet at home – requires electricity.
Water intake pumps must be close to the water source, and you can’t run the pumps if they’re underwater.
Simply put, water and electricity don’t mix. And the rising levels of the Kentucky River and other bodies of water were threatening to overtake the intake pumps.
That was the case for Frankfort, whose primary water provider, the Frankfort Plant Board, had to remove its intake pumps from the banks of the swollen Kentucky River. The waterway hit a historic high Monday morning, nearly topping its all-time record in more than 200 years of records.
The system is still providing water to residents through its reserves. And workers are attempting to get the intake system back online by late Monday, Frankfort Plant Board Director of Marketing and Communications Cathy Lindsey told the Herald-Leader.
“Our intake pumps are down by the river, and when the water gets too high, we have to pull the pumps out, or else they’ll be destroyed because of the electricity,” Lindsey said.
Fortunately for Frankfort, the water never breached the pump station – projections for the Kentucky River at Frankfort were at one point frighteningly close to, or even above, the all-time high.
But getting the pumps back online isn’t so simple, Lindsey said.
“Now that the river has crested, we do know that water did not get into the building where the pumps are, but it’s right beneath the building,” she said.
“So, there’s a little planning to do on how to reattach those intake pumps when you can’t get under the building. So that’s something they’re working on right now to try to get those pumps reattached as soon as possible.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 3:45 PM.
