A $4.8 million water main extension has brought public water infrastructure to 61 more households in Kenton County.
Elected county leaders and professionals from the Northern Kentucky Water District, which headed up the project, celebrated the completion of the extension on Tuesday. The extension not only brings public drinking water to households that were previously unconnected, but it also expands fire safety infrastructure with the addition of 32 new fire hydrants.
“With the addition of four miles of new water mains, 61 additional households will gain access to (the water district’s) public water system,” said Lindsey Rechtin, president and CEO of the Northern Kentucky Water District. “As a result of projects like this, more than 99% of households in Kenton County now have access to public water service which is significantly higher than the state average.”
The water district provides service for about 300,000 people in Campbell and Kenton Counties, as well as portions of Boone, Grant and Pendleton counties. This most recent expansion saw infrastructure buildout in the district’s O sub-district for Kenton County.
The water district has initiated 16 water main expansion projects since 1992, said Sara Sgantas, the water district’s Communications and Public Outreach Manager, which have targeted “unserved households within our service area.”
“We started this process decades ago….,” said the water district’s Vice President of Engineering and Distribution Richard Harrison, after it became possible for Pendleton County Water District and the Bullock Pen Water District to connect to the northern district. “We made sure that we built a base system that could support a number of large extensions.”
Funding for this most recent extension came from a variety of sources, including American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funding disbursed from the Kenton County Fiscal Court. The water district first received funding for the project in October of last year and completed construction of the extension this April. The water district also completed a similar extension in Campbell County last year.
Anytime an extension project is planned, the water district will survey households that are unconnected to assess where to focus its efforts.
“We would then break potential projects into groups of streets from the highest density to lower density, meaning you want it to serve the most folks as you can with precious grant monies and local funds that are available,” said Harrison.
Prior to getting connected to public water infrastructure, Sgantas said, many of the households in the expansion area “use well water, or they collect rainwater. A lot of them have cisterns, so they will haul water or they’ll pay somebody to haul water to them.”
“The fact that we have been able to provide fire hydrants and fire protection is fairly unique with these types of extensions,” Harrison said, “and it’s something we’re very proud of.”
Sgantas said that there are currently no other extensions in the works and that future extensions were dependent on securing funding.
