The year 2025 brought on some very busy and exciting times for the Grayson County Water District Board of Directors and its employees. We started the year out with continued work on the Phase II, East/West project, which is a multi-year, multi-phase project that will allow the GCWD water treatment plant to serve more of its distribution system itself, giving both GCWD and Leitchfield Utilities more flexibility with water capacity.
Phase II of the East/West project included several miles of new transmission line, a new pump station, and multiple tank rehabs. While some of this work started in 2024, most of it was completed in 2025. All this project work is being done through multiple contracts using multiple contractors. Phase II should be completed and closed later this year.
A big change for GCWD became available early 2025 in the way of being offered for purchase the territory in Grayson County that was previously being served by Edmonson County Water District. In early 2025 the Grayson County Water District was approached by the Edmonson County Water District to inquire if GCWD would be interested in purchasing the customers, infrastructure, and territory of the ECWD that was in Grayson County. Over the last several years it has become increasingly difficult for the Edmonson County Water District to serve this area. An aging Water Treatment Plant and other aging infrastructure caused water quality and water availability issues in those parts of the system and the required upgrades to improve those issues made it cost prohibitive to continue serving those areas from ECWD. Currently GCWD has much more cost-effective options for serving this area moving forward. Since that time GCWD and ECWD have been working together to facilitate that transition. Below is a timeline of the process:
Timeline:
January 15th, 2025: GCWD approached by ECWD to purchase territory.
February 18th, 2025: The board of GCWD decided to move forward with negotiating with ECWD for the purchase of their territory in Grayson County.
May 25th, 2025: The board passed resolutions approving a Statement of Intent to Purchase and an Operating Agreement with ECWD.
May 29th, 2025: Both the Operating Agreement and Statement of Intent were fully executed.
June 23rd, 2025: GCWD was invited by KIA to apply for a low interest loan and grant funding to finance the cost of purchasing the ECWD system in Grayson County as well as some other infrastructure upgrades that will accompany the project.
August 1st, 2025: GCWD began operating the new territory under the operating agreement with ECWD.
August 25th, 2025: The board authorized the Chairperson to enter into a loan agreement with KIA to finance the purchase and infrastructure upgrades for the new territory.
September 23rd, 2025: The Asset Purchase agreement between ECWD and GCWD is executed.
October 6th, 2025: Case No. 2025-00330 was filed with the Kentucky Public Service Commission for an order approving the transfer of ownership of ECWD’s Grayson County distribution system to GCWD and an order authorizing the issuance of securities by GCWD to purchase the territory.
July 1st, 2026: This is an estimate of when the purchase will be approved by the PSC. Over the next few months GCWD and ECWD will work with the PSC to get everything approved and finalized.
Phase III of the East/West project will consist of the purchase of the territory and making multiple tie-ins in strategic areas to allow GCWD to better serve this additional territory. There will be additional contracts added to the Phase III East/West project to include the addition of multiple new pump stations, a new transmission line, and a new water tower. This additional work will be done as funding options become available.
A lot more work was done besides the East/West project thanks to the hard work of the GCWD employees, and its contractors. Below is a list of some of the accomplishments for 2025:
- Completed 6400+ Work orders
- Repaired 139+ Leaks
- Successfully brought water-loss to below 10%
- Completed addition of 2 new GAC Filters to the WTP
- Completed addition of VFD Drives on 3 high service pumps to the WTP
- Completed installation of 3 new high service pumps to the WTP
- Completed installation of 16,000 ft of 12” transmission line to the system
- Completed installation of 34,000 ft of 16” transmission line to the system
- Added operations and maintenance of 4 pumpstations to the system
- Added operations and maintenance of 5 water towers to the system
- Added operations and maintenance of 130 miles of water main to the system
- Added operations and maintenance of 3500 customer services to the system
- Installed 169 new services in the system
- Rehabbed and painted the Clarkson Water Tower
- Rehabbed and painted the Detention Center Water Tower
- Rehabbed and painted the Big Clifty Water Tower
- Rehabbed and painted the Duff Rd Water Tower
- Drained and cleaned the Clearwell and 2 wet wells at the WTP
- Drained, cleaned and repaired the Hwy 88 Water Tower
- Inspected and replaced 964 water meters
I would like to thank the GCWD Board of Directors for their extraordinary leadership during 2025 and allowing the management and employees of GCWD to exercise their abilities to perform this work at a high level of quality and accuracy. I would also like to express my gratitude toward the employees for always going above and beyond providing a high quality level of service and product to the GCWD customers. GCWD management looks forward to another productive and busy year of operations at the water district.
Jeremy Woosley, General Manager