Water Emergency at CLWD affects Crittenden County

MARION, Ky. – A water distribution and supply emergency is affecting parts of Crittenden County following a major water line failure that sharply reduced water levels at a critical storage tank, county officials said Thursday morning.

According to a public notice issued by Crittenden County Judge-Executive Perry Newcom, maintenance crews with the Crittenden-Livingston Water District discovered a catastrophic leak on an 8-inch water line Wednesday afternoon. The line supplies the Wilson Hill water tank, located above the City of Marion, which serves a majority of water customers across the county.

The leak was discovered around 2:30 p.m. Jan. 28 and repairs were completed by approximately 7:15 p.m. that evening. Despite the repair, water levels in the Wilson Hill tank dropped significantly because the tank could not be refilled during the outage.

Water district officials said efforts to restore tank levels began immediately, but progress has been slowed by the limited size of the supply line combined with continued water demand overnight and into Thursday morning. As a result, water levels remained low.

Compounding the situation, the Webster County Water District notified CLWD that it could no longer continue supplying water to portions of the eastern and northern areas of the CLWD system, citing its inability to meet current demand. The loss of that supplemental supply affects roughly 1,500 meters of service area.

Because of the reduced supply, CLWD officials said a rolling water outage plan may be implemented for parts of eastern and northern Crittenden County until further notice. Specific areas impacted by potential outages had not been confirmed as of Thursday morning and will be announced as soon as possible.

CLWD management, Crittenden County Emergency Management, and the county judge-executive’s office are coordinating with state partners to manage the situation and minimize impacts to customers. Officials are urging all water customers to conserve water as much as possible.

Residents are specifically asked to turn off any dripping faucets, noting that warmer temperatures expected Thursday reduce the risk of frozen pipes. Officials said eliminating unnecessary water use will help speed the recovery of water levels at the Wilson Hill tank.

Additional updates will be released as more information becomes available.