Customers of Crittenden-Livingston Water District should not notice any changes to their service over the next few days as falling water levels in the Cumberland River "greatly affect" how the utility treats its potable water.
Work to repair damage to the locks and dam on the Ohio River at Brookport, Ill., is the cause of the falling water level on the Cumberland, which drains into the Ohio upstream from Brookport at Smithland. For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make necessary repairs, which could take up to four days depending on river conditions, the dam may have to be lowered. That would temporarily halt river traffic and cause water levels upstream, including on tributaries like the Cumberland River, to fall below water intakes for utilities such as Crittenden-Livingston Water District.
Officials at the water district office in Salem say the falling river level will indeed drop below their intake at Pinckneyville, but a large pump is being used to bypass the normal intake and deliver river water to the treatment plant in order to ensure undisrupted water service to customers in Crittenden and Livingston counties.
