Recently, Kentucky American received the OK from the Public Service Commission to build the $160 million plant and pipeline near pool 3, just north of Frankfort.
BWSC sought $60 million from the General Assembly to tie into the project but was shutout in the final budget.
"We weren't funded in the last session of the General Assembly, so we really don't have anything to buy in with as far as the pool 3 portion of the Kentucky American project," Calkins said. "So, we're looking at some other alternatives with them right now."
Kentucky American Water came into the fold with a plan to construct a new treatment plant on the Kentucky River just north of Frankfort.
"This plan that they have right now with some slight differences with the site that's on pool 3 (just north of Frankfort)," Calkins said. "Therefore, the routing of the 42-inch (pipe), there are some slight differences there over what we had proposed in a February 2004 feasibility report."
The new plant, which is scheduled to be completed in 2010, will connect to the company's system in Lexington via a pipeline that runs through Franklin and Scott counties.
Sharing is important
Calkins, who is BWSC's chair and the Nicholasville representative, said the sharing in a regional water system is vital for central Kentucky communities.
"It's important, especially for Nicholasville and Jessamine County consumers, that there is another place from which Kentucky American can withdraw for its customers because we had times last year where there were days where there was 63 million gallons a day coming from (pool) 10 into pool 9, and Kentucky American was withdrawing every bit of that," he said. "As a result, we had in our pool, which is formed by Dam 8, we had so little water coming in, that between Aug. 17 and Oct. 23, there were only nine days that we had water at or going over the crest of Dam 8."
BWSC represents the cities of Nicholasville, Winchester, Frankfort, Georgetown, Paris, Mount Sterling, Lancaster, Cynthiana and Berea. The group envisions a plan of connecting their water systems so they would have a larger surplus of water.
Besides having a backup water supply in case of drought, Calkins said there are other benefits to connecting water systems.
"In the event of major main breaks, there have been incidents, not here fortunately, where they've had fires in treatment plants, and the plants were offline for a period of time," Calkins said.
