Several Towns Declare State of Emergency Due to Water Shortage

The Division of Water in Neon, KY has declared a state of emergency for citizens in McRoberts, Fleming-Neon and Jackhorn after these communities lost all of their water supply. Several McRoberts citizens had been complaining last week that their water was barely running and that it was discolored, and soon Neon began experiencing water shortages as well. The word came Friday morning, December 10th, that the cities had no water, the wells were empty. Trying to conserve water the Neon Water Department shut the systems off from 8 pm on the 10th to 6 am on the 11th.

The Neon fire department is giving 3 gallons of water to each household every day, and the community has heard that the National Guard has been called in to deliver tankers of water to try to refill the wells. When the water is running, people have been collecting it to use. The Letcher County Chapter of KFTC has been working in the community of McRoberts over the past several months about the recent increase in Natural Gas Drilling and have heard several concerns about the effect of the several wells that have been drilled very close to the water plant in the community. As of right now, it is being told that the reason why we’re experiencing this extreme shortage is because the well that usually collects water in the summer experienced a drought and there’s not enough water in the other well to supply all three towns. For right now, when water is being used it is under a boil water advisory. The city of Whitesburg is also under boil water advisory because of what the officials are saying was complications from the recent weather.