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Harlan County residents dealing with water outages amid cold temperatures

pixabay.com

Some Harlan County residents have been experiencing intermittent water outages over the past two weeks. County officials have declared a local state of emergency in response.

The outage mostly affects customers of the Black Mountain Utility District. Cold temperatures are causing pipes to burst, and the utility has been dealing with a staffing shortage.

Judge Executive Dan Mosley says the sporadic nature of the outages has been a problem.

“You'll have some customers regain water service over here, and then over the next mountain, they lose it because there's a separate problem, and it's a separate system.”

Mosley says the main concern right now is fixing a major pump.

“It's having a hard time meeting demand, so we're trying to work with a vendor right now to figure out that problem and either rebuild the pump or replace it,” he said.

Mosley says around 1,900 residents were without water at the peak of the problem. Around 100 residents are still without water, and workers from other local utilities have been brought in to help. The county has been giving out water to those in need in the meantime.

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Shepherd joined WEKU in June 2023 as a staff reporter. He most recently worked for West Virginia Public Broadcasting as General Assignment Reporter. In that role, he collected interviews and captured photos in the northern region of West Virginia. Shepherd holds a master’s degree in Digital Marketing Communication and a bachelor’s in music from West Virginia University.
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