Martin County water customers see significant rate increase

MARTIN COUNTY, Ky. (WSAZ) - In 2018 when the Kentucky Public Service Commission granted an emergency rate increase of 26.8%, many customers hoped to see change.

“Last month, I received another warning about the water not meeting quality regulations. We’re still having outages and boil water advisories. I’m not seeing any improvement. I was hoping by now that we would be able to at least see something,” said BarbiAnn Maynard, a longtime water advocate and customer.

On Friday, the Kentucky Public Service Commission approved an 11.68% rate hike to help generate more than $250,000 yearly for Martin County Water infrastructure improvements.

According to the order from the state PSC, the “typical” resident’s bill will go from $50.18 to $56.04 -- an increase of $5.86 a month.

“Unless the requested emergency rate increase is placed into effect, substantial doubt exists as to whether the Martin District can continue to operate at all. At present, it’s unable to pay its current bills for needed supplies and services which it must have in order to produce, treat, and distribute water,” the PSC said in its order.

According to the PSC, the increase is “sufficient to generate (annual) revenues of about $250,834.”

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