HAZARD – The Hazard Trunkline Project received over $4 million in state and federal funding, the Division of Abandoned Mine Lands announced last week.

The project has four contracts awarded totaling $4,966,023.80 and will provide the city of Hazard with two 2-million gallon water storage tanks that will replace the existing water tank, add a booster pump station and approximately 6.7 miles of large diameter trunklines.

The additional water storage capacity and improved water distribution system will provide a larger volume of water for the public, especially in the outlying areas of Town Mountain, Grapevine/Chavies, Lost Creek, and Robinson. After the project is completed City Manager Paul Feltner says it will cut down on the possibility of a major water outage like the one that happened this past winter.

“It will allow us to better manage the delivery of water to our customers. Remember what happened in the winter? This enhances that situation considerably in that it would be much less likely to happen with a big distribution going out to the big demand area – ARH and North Perry,” he said.

In addition to reducing the chance for an outage the project will also enable the city’s municipal water treatment plant be able to better recuperate from waterline breaks, sustain future sizable expansions of service, and distribute treated water to the community of Hazard, which will enable further economic growth within the city of Hazard.

“The AML program has funded the expansion of municipal water supply systems in the coalfield counties where citizens’ existing water supplies were shown to be damaged by pre-law mining,” said the Department for Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell. “To date, over 10,000 households have received municipal water service via AML funding.”

Feltner says they received $2.4 million from AML, $1 million from the EDA, $672,215 in a grant from the USDA Rural Development, and a loan from the USDA for $1.569 million, which were enough funds to start and complete the project.

“We would never be able to do this project without the grant funding,” Feltner noted.

Waterline and tank bids were also awarded for the project at the city commission meeting on Monday night. Bids were awarded to Clay Pipeline for the waterline bids at $1,637,191 for Contract A, and $2,035,850 for Contract B while Kentucky Glass Lined Tank was awarded with bids of $794,491 for Contract C and $498,491 for Contract D for the new tanks.

On-site construction is scheduled to begin in early May.