MARTIN COUNTY, KY.–News of the potential rate increase comes as thousands of customers of Martin County Water District saw their water pressure decrease dramatically during the recent cold spell that saw temperatures near or below the zero degree mark.

Joe Hammond, with Martin County Water District, says that is mainly because the reservoir where the county gets its water had started freezing, which drastically slowed down the flow into the intake structure.  That coupled with customers’ efforts to keep their own pipes from freezing, caused a water shortage in the storage tanks.

“The ground is freezing, the water is freezing, customers are letting their water run to keep from freezing up at home and it drains the tanks that we have and when that happens the freezing part in the reservoir and river the flow is not like it normally is and it’s hard to keep the tanks full.”

Because of the low water pressure, there is boil water advisory for all customers of Martin County Water District until further notice.  Hammond did say the situation is improving as temperatures increase and the ice continues to melt. However, this afternoon the utility announced it will shut off water lines every afternoon at 3 and reopen them at 5 o’clock in the morning, until further notice.

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/zpzTMH-IBmw” height=”340″]SOT[/su_youtube]