After an extensive study on extending a new public water main to to underserved area of Campbell County involving 204 households, Campbell County Fiscal Court and the Northern Kentucky Water District have decided not to pursue the project.
The 204 household were in an area designated as Sub-District J and included property owners on 13 roads, including Wagoner Road, Pleasant Ridge Road, Dodsworth Lane, Barrs Branch Road, Enzweiler Road, and others.
Jugde Executive Steve Pendery
Campbell County Judge/Executive Steve Pendery and Ron Lovan, President/CEO of the Northern Kentucky Water District said the main factor leading to this decision was the lack of density in the rural study area, which made the extension project disproportionately costly per resident.
While the Water District and Campbell County explored grants and potential funding sources to assist with the cost, more than 50 percent of households would need to be interested in participating; that threshold was not met.
In Campbell County, the Northern Kentucky Water District maintains 28,662 active accounts connected to public water service. Overall, 926 households do not have public service available, which would require 100 miles of new water main to be built. This project examined how to provide service to 204 households, which would add nearly 13 miles of new main at an estimated cost of $6M.
Based on the surveys and significant feedback received, the Fiscal Court learned that 38 percent of affected households reported interest in water service. Without 50 percent or more of households desiring service, many grant opportunities would not have been options to assist with funding, making the cost per household share of extending the water mains would have been prohibitively expensive.
“Engagement of residents was essential to our decision in this case,” said Steve Pendery, Campbell County Judge/Executive. “I was pleased with our successful effort to reach out to folks and make them aware of the proposed project’s details, but the simple fact of the matter is that we lacked more than 50 percent support of those who would be affected.”
Apart from the lack of majority-household support, the rural nature of the study areas also played a role in the decision, reported the Northern Kentucky Water District.
“From a technical perspective, a lack of population density in the subject area makes the project a challenge,” said Ron Lovan, President/CEO of the Northern Kentucky Water District. “However, what is more important in this decision is that, when pursuing the types of grants and loans that would fund it, we must show more than 50% interest from those affected; the community feedback helps us make the case in justifying the cost, and the Sub-District J initiative does not have that support at this time.”
While the study is completed and the project will not move forward, the agency partners reiterated that future work is not out of the question.
