Martin County water woes just a another piece of larger political corruption

While we Martin Countians face yet another water rate increase (for a total 85% increase since 2018) to barely maintain a system that is doomed to remain on the brink of collapse, Kentucky lawmakers propose Senate Bill 28 that would allow utilities to “grant free or reduced rate service to any commercial operation that produces food items intended for human consumption,” and the Abandoned Mines Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program announces a 2.5-million-dollar grant to “Martin County” to repurpose an existing building on the “industrial park” to refrigerate apples.

These seemingly disparate political and monetary actions symbolize the unfair and frankly ridiculous economic and political principles that pervade many decisions coming from our elected leaders across the state.

Some will dismiss the problems of Martin Countians as being “their own fault” for letting years of neglect and possible misappropriation continue. However, for two decades, the citizens have begged regulators and political leaders time and again to hear their cries for help with an obvious problem.

In a March 2001 public meeting, the Kentucky Division of Water (DOW), the EPA, and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) from Atlanta announced that our water plant could filter out all contaminants from the 300-million-gallon Massey slurry spill, while a document from the DOW from December 12, 2000, stated the exact opposite. The ATSDR report states “there was a lot of anger and resentment in the community.”

In 2002, the Public Service Commission (PSC) opened an investigation that showed that the county’s water plant had failed a 2001 inspection. A second 2006 PSC investigation cited the same violations and showed that a three-million-dollar project to renovate the plant had never been completed or accounted for.

In 2016, a group of young Martin Countians founded a Facebook group called Martin County Water Warriors. They asked for help from Senator Ray Jones after years of receiving notices of violations of the legal limit of Disinfection By-Products (DBPs), stating that excesses cause liver, kidney, central nervous system damage, and an increased risk of cancer.

That same year, the PSC opened the third investigation that found the water system with the same violations and deeply in debt.

Some will argue that Martin County has already been given 8.5 million dollars in grants for water projects, and that should appease our “anger and resentment.” However, five years after those grants were awarded, most of the money has not been spent because it is not enough to cover the costs of the proposed projects.

Some will say that Martin County is far away and none of their concern. But they would be fatally wrong. Martin County is a thinly veiled view of what is going on and has been going on across the state.

The announcement that “Martin County” is getting $2.5 million to support an apple orchard business owned by one person (who might even get free water thanks to Senate Bill 28) to “revitalize” the economy (by giving us jobs picking his apples?), while our community of 11,000 residents is afforded less than four times that amount to fix a problem that has made us an object of national shame and disgrace, is another slap in our face and an indicator of what decision makers are doing on a statewide scale.

If small farmers believe they might receive free water from any bill these legislators are proposing, then they are not paying attention. In fact, all Kentuckians must acknowledge that every community has a millionaire sucking up the taxes that are skimmed off the public coffers and our paychecks.

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican problem – in the past 20 years, the state as well as Martin County have swung both ways several times. The problem is one of money – big money— that is allowed to control the narrative, the political process, and who reaps the benefits of the fruits of the hard work of everyday Kentuckians.

Nina McCoy is the chair of Martin County Concerned Citizens. She lives in Inez.