Despite setback, superintendent thinks plan will eventually work
The Henderson County Water District continues the tall task of repairing its leaky system, water infrastructure throughout the county that is still leaking about 40% of the water it buys, HCWD Superintendent Mark Julian told the Henderson County Fiscal Court Tuesday morning.
In a HCWD July report, the district bought 52.825 million gallons from the Henderson Water Utility, while it sold 30.4 million, Julian said. He said the total water loss was 22 million gallons, representing a 41.71% water loss and a water loss cost of $69,379.40.
In June, the water district lost 34.09% of the water it bought before being delivered, and that equaled a $49,687.50 water loss cost, according to a graph Julian presented Tuesday.
HCWD buys treated water from HWU and sells what’s delivered to its customers in the county through the HCWD’s pipe system, which Julian has said in the past is old and has been poorly maintained throughout the years.
In March, Julian told the Fiscal Court that the system was leaking about 43% of the water it takes in before it gets to customers and asked for $2.64 million to fix the hemorrhaging system. He presented a plan to isolate the most troublesome areas first and get them fixed before moving to the rest of the system.
At a meeting a month later, the fiscal court approved $3 million in funding for HCWD, which would be dispersed in increments and approved on the condition that Julian report back to the fiscal court on a regular basis concerning the progress of his plan.
Julian acknowledged that July’s percent of water loss is higher than he’d hoped for, but pointed to a large leak in a water main buried under the Green River as the reason the leak percentage was still high.
That leak took some time to find—not till early August. Since then, the Kentucky Division of Water has approved the use of a water line that is connected to the underside of the Spottsville bridge and the line under the Green River will no longer be used, Julian said.
HCWD’s goal is to bring the water loss to below 20% within 36 months, which Julian said he believes will happen, despite the recent setback.
“I believe the project is on schedule,” he said.
Other pieces from Julian’s presentation include:
- HCWD has fixed almost 4 million gallons of leaks thus far
- 16 leaks were fixed in July (though Julian said that is lower than what is needed)
- HCWD crew are focusing their search for leaks in eastern and southeastern Henderson County where most of the leaks are occurring
- New hires are a meter reader, a field technician, office staff person and a GIS field technician who is tasked to map exact pipe locations
Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider asked at what water loss percentage would the district become cash positive. Julian said below 15%.
In other fiscal court news, the fiscal court unanimously approved its 2025-2026 tax rates. The rates remain the same as those for 2024-2025. They are:
- Real property, 12.8 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to bring in $3.69 million of revenue
- Personal property, 18.4 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to bring in $873,964 of revenue
- Motor vehicles, 8.5 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to bring in $387,145 in revenue
- Public serv. co. real estate, 11.8 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to $112,657 in revenue
- Personal serv. co. personal, 17.5 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to bring in $382,370 in revenue
- Watercraft, 8.5 cents per $100 valuation, which is expected to bring in $14,728 in revenue
Additionally, the fiscal court approved the Henderson County Public Library’s tax rates for 2025-2026. HCPL Executive Director Shannon Sandefur said the HCPL’s board of trustees approved the compensating rate, which allows a taxing district to tax at the level that will produce approximately the same tax revenue as the previous year.
The 2025-26 rates are:
- Real property, 10.9 cents per $100 valuation
- Personal property, 12.9 cents per $100 valuation
- Inventory, 12.9 cents per $100 valuation
- Motor vehicle, 2.3 cents per $100 valuation
After fiscal court’s approval, Sandefur spoke about HCPL’s achievements in the past year. Among the highlights were that the library had 257,232 items checked out and that saved residents $5.2 million, Sandefur said. The library also had 166,807 visitors and offered more than 51,000 services, she said. And local organizations held 2,000 meetings in the library’s meeting rooms.
