Where does my drinking water come from?

In the US, most people get their drinking water from a public water system or utility. In fact, 9 out of 10 people in the US get their water from one of more than 148,000 public water systems (1). In Harlan County, there are eight water and wastewater systems. These systems include Benham Water Works, Black Mountain Utility District, Cawood Water District, Cumberland Municipal Water System, Evarts Municipal Water System, Harlan Municipal Water System, Wallins Creek Water System and Lynch Water System. 

Drinking water may come from a variety of sources, such as surface water and ground water. Surface sources include rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, while ground water is stored in aquifers. In some cases source water is supplied by neighboring water systems, where the water is purchased by one water system from another. This water can be treated before or after purchase and is distributed to the customers of the purchasing water system.  

Harlan County (2) had an estimated population  of 30,783 in 2008 with 98% served by a water utility. In areas of the county not served by public water, about 83% of the households use wells and 17% use other sources such as springs.  About 13 million U.S. households (3) drink from a private well. 

Surface Water

Surface water used for drinking water collects in a stream, river, lake, or reservoir and is piped to a water treatment plant. Surface water is constantly evaporating out of water bodies, seeping into underground aquifers, and being replenished by rain and snow. Many water systems use surface water as their source. 

Groundwater

Groundwater is located below the surface of the earth in spaces between rock and soil. These spaces are called aquifers. Groundwater is filtered naturally to some degree, but this natural filtration removes only some, but not all contaminants. This depends on geography and other factors. In Harlan County (and other areas with large coal deposits) water is sometimes pumped out of coal seams which are a type of aquifer and are a common source of groundwater in coal rich areas. Springs are also a common source of groundwater in the mountains, where sedimentary rock with sandstone and limestone layers create cracks and crevices for water to trickle through, gather, and overflow onto the surface. Sandstone stands up to the erosion of water, but the relatively soft limestone is worn away by the weak carbonic acid of rainwater after it has trickled through the soil. (8)

Harlan County's Public Water Systems, their source water, and capacity

Harlan County has multiple water systems that draw water from several sources (7): Click on this link for a map - We need pointers on how to use the map 

• Benham Water Works gets its water from Looney Creek and from coal mines. In 2023, this district services 403 households in Harlan County. The water treatment plant has a capacity of 300,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces approximately 130,000 gallons of clean water. The storage capacity is approximately 307,000 for their 2 water tanks and 130,000 for their clear well. 

• Black Mountain Utility District purchases 140,000 gallons of water per day from Harlan Municipal Water Works, Cawood Water District, and Evarts Municipal Water Works. This District has reached an agreement to The system currently serves 1,045 residential, 4 commercial, 1 industrial and 1 institutional customers. The system has a current capacity of 144,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 31,000 gallons of clean water. The total storage capacity of the plant is 310,000 gallons of water in their 4 water tanks and 7,000 gallons for their clear well. 

• Cawood Water District acquires water from nearby Martins Fork Lake. The system currently serves 881 residential, 8 commercial and 1 industrial customers. The system has the current capacity of 500,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 150,370 gallons of water per day. The total storage capacity of the plant is 400,000 gallons of water in their 3 water tanks and 75,000 gallons for their clear well. 

• Cumberland Municipal Water System acquires water from the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River. The system currently serves 1,157 residential customers. The system has the current capacity of 1,000,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 550,000 gallons of water per day. The total storage capacity of the plant is 1,375,000 gallons of water in their 6 water tanks and 550,000 gallons for their clear well. 

• Evarts Municipal Water Works acquires water from 3 nearby wells, 1 mine and the Clover Fork River. The system currently serves 556 residential, 50 commercial and 3 institutional customers. The system has a current capacity of 750,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 165,000 gallons of water. The total storage capacity of the plant is 150,000 gallons of water in their one water tank. 

• Harlan Municipal acquires water from the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River. This system currently serves 1,118 residential, 369 commercial, 2 industrial, and 13 institutional customers. The system has the current capacity of 2 million gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 1.1 million gallons of water. The total storage capacity of the plant is 1,310,500 gallons of water in their four water tanks and 175,700 for their clear well. 

• Lynch Water System, in the extreme northeastern part of the county, acquires water from Big Looney Creek and a local coal seam. This system currently serves 437 residential, six commercial, and seven institutional customers. The system has the current capacity of 1.2 million gallons per day. The total storage capacity of the plant is 550,000 gallons of water in their two water tanks and 92,000 for their clear well.

• Wallins Creek Water acquires water from three wells and purchases water from Harlan Municipal Water Works. This system currently serves 366 residential and seven institutional customers. This system has a trade agreement with Harlan Municipal Water Works customers who are serviced by a master meter owned by Harlan Municipal Water Works. The system has the current capacity of 432,000 gallons per day. On an average day the plant produces 20,000 gallons of water.

(sourced from https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/download/water/wrdc/cvadd.pdf)

Water utilities may be owned by cities, such as the Benham Water Plant, Cumberland Municipal Water Works, Evarts Municipal Water Plant, Harlan Municipal Water Works, and Lynch Water Works. In this case, the city council would make decisions about rates, operations, and upkeep. A water utility may be a county-owned business, such as the Black Mountain Utility District [???CHECK]. A water plant may be run by a non-profit association, which has water boards are made up of community members who make decisions about water services including pricing. 

Below is a list of water providers and water treatment centers in Harlan County. By clicking on the link, 

Benham Water Plant

(606) 848-2914

Benham Power Board

Black Mountain Utility District

BMUD contains a number of subsystems that may be accessed through this page, including Coxton, Dayhoit, Kenvir, Louellen, Rosspoint, Sukey Ridge, and Wallins.

(606) 573-1277

Cawood Water District

Some information for the Pathfork section is found here

(606) 573-3744

Cumberland Municipal Water Works

(606) 589-4024

Cumberland Sewer Treatment

(606) 589-4022

Evarts Municipal Water Plant

(606) 837-3232

Green Hills Water District

(606)558-3995

Harlan Municipal Water Works and Utility

(606) 573-1540

Lynch Water Works

(606) 848-2282

From https://legislature.ky.gov/LRC/Publications/Informational%20Bulletins/ib145.pdf - maybe just refer to the Sunshine Law without too much detail - 

KRS 61.805 to 61.850, popularly known as the Sunshine Law, ensure citizen access to the workings of government. These statutes require that the public be admitted to any meeting of a public agency at which a quorum is present, public business is discussed, or action is taken. 

How much does this vary from organization to organization? 

The U. S. Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1948 as the first major legislation to focus on controlling and preventing water pollution. It was expanded in 1972 and amended in 1977. Changes to the law in 1987 created the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), which helps fund improvements to public water systems (PWS) and construction of new facilities and infrastructure.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed in 1974, with updates in 1986 and 1996, empowering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create and enforce minimum standards for water quality of public drinking water systems, regardless of source water (surface or groundwater). There are also regulations to protect underground water sources from the injection of fluids into the ground. (source)

The EPA sets the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR) list to test for 90 different contaminants, and the National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations (NSDWR) list for 15 contaminants and to set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for a drinking water system* to remain in compliance. These contaminants include microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts (DBPs), inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, and radionuclides. 

The owner or operator of the Public Water System (PWS) is responsible for making sure their system is in compliance and to notify the public when they are in violation of the SDWA. In addition, each PWS is required to publish its Consumer Confidence Report at least once per year, by July, and make it available to its customers. See the section on Issues & Emergencies for more information. The SDWA also gives individual states and tribal governments the chance to create and enforce their own regulations, as long as they are at least as rigorous as the federal laws. (source)

*The SDWA applies to PWS serving 15 or more connections or an average of 25 people or more each day for at least 60 days per year.