Wheelwright, Ky.–Many Floyd County residents in the City of Wheelwright have been having water issues for several days. EKB’s Shawn Allen paid a visit to the former coal mining town and tells us why.

For at least the last 70 years the City of Wheelwright’s main source of water has come from an abandoned coal mine, but all that has changed in the last few days.

“It started on Friday. So we started having people calling in and saying they were losing water pressure. When we got those calls we went back to see and we had nothing down. The utility workers then went into the mines where we get our water supply and they find that there is no water. Why there is no water, we don’t know. We don’t understand how probably millions of gallons of water just disappear.”

Mayor Hall says they are working around the clock to get water back in homes.

“We had a connection at the junction with Southern Water District. We had a system set up down there for probably twenty years; it was a ready pump and everything. So we go down there and we kick it on and what we are finding out is that the pump that we have down there is not pushing the water all the way through town to all customers. We are now in the process of putting in extra pumps to bring the water on up through town like in the higher elevations like 79 Hill, Hall Hollow and Branham’s Hollow. We are working on pushing that water on up to them.”

Although the city is doing everything they can to remedy the situation there is something residents can do to help.

“We’ve set up a temporary tank for anybody that needs to come and get water that needs it to maybe flush their commode or any other basic water needs that they will need. What we’re hoping is that people will cut back and use just what water you have to use until we can get this problem resolved.”

Mayor Hall gave no specific time frame for the matter being resolved and asked that everyone be patient.

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