History The healthy, efficiently managed water and sewerage system the city enjoys today is a testament to a century of hard work and vision. But, like so many things, getting the system off the ground in the 19th Century was a hard-fought struggle with as many setbacks as triumphs, says city-county Historian William T. Turner. The progress must be viewed in two components, that of water and that of sewer. Even though their evolution in recent memory has been intertwined, their beginnings and early years were separate.
WATER AT YOUR SERVICE
Water was central to the very founding of the city in 1797, with Bartholomew Wood basing the location of the settlement on the presence of a rock spring. Amazingly, from Wood’s settlement until 1896, the city’s only sources of water were Little River, local ponds, hand-dug wells and cisterns. While residents were at the mercy of Mother Nature for their sources of drinking water, it was fire protection that got the ball rolling for a municipal water supply. The chronic danger of fire eased somewhat with the earliest volunteer fire department being organized in 1834. Later, the city would pay for the digging of “fire cisterns” at key intersections downtown. Fifteen or twenty of the fire cisterns were dug, each of which would hold probably 20 wagonloads of water. Suction hoses from the city’s new steam fire pumper would be dropped into the stored water and the cistern water used to extinguish a blaze. Turner said that many of the fire cisterns remain today, their 30-foot depth buried under but a foot or so of concrete and asphalt. One, for instance, remains on the southeast corner of the courthouse square.
FIRST MOVES ARE DEFEATED
In Dec. 1879, the city was mulling a vote on bonds to build a waterworks system, but the move was beaten back on a vote by council. Four years later, F.M. Loweree & Associates proposed to build a waterworks for $3,000 a year, one that would provide 60 hydrants and provide water at 5 cents per 100 gallons. Loweree’s proposal was debated at length and in February of 1884, a contract was signed. The equipment was to be located on the West Fork of Little River and was to provide 1.5 million gallons of pure water every 24 hours using the settlement process and chemicals. As good as the proposal sounded, it was to be cancelled in August of 1884. In 1887, another move was afoot to initiate a bond issue and the Hopkinsville Waterworks Co. Inc. was organized April 30, 1887. The movement envisioned the city building a system of its own. M.C. Forbes was tapped as president and E.G. Sebree Jr. held the title of secretary-treasurer. The Hopkinsville Water, Light and Power Company was incorporated March 18, 1893, and in August of that year, the city granted a franchise to Jon P. Martin of Xenia, Ohio, to erect and maintain a system of waterworks, electric lamps and a power plant.
DELAYS FINALLY PAY OFF
Long delays followed and the predictable threat of legal action, but a waterworks ordinance and guidelines were finally drawn up in official language Dec. 6, 1894. That ordinance called for another licensee, Jessee W. Starr of New York and on Jan. 1, 1895, contracts and orders were set up with rates listed. On July 24, 1895, city council dropped Starr and instead sold the water works franchise to Samuel R. Bullock of New York. The franchise was ratified on Aug. 6, 1895, for a period of 20 years. It specified in detail the kind of plant that would be erected, established a schedule of water rates and specified rental procedures for the 102 fire hydrants that would be installed. Bullock failed to honor the franchise and it subsequently was sold to Standard Construction Company of Bowling Green. H.D. Fitch was president and the name was changed to Hopkinsville Water Company.
WATER BEGINS TO FLOW…AT LAST
The plant was completed and began operation in 1896. Records show that the first service tap was made at 2 p.m. Jan. 8, 1896, at 113 W. Seventh St. Thus began the city’s first water system, instituted largely to provide fire protection. Water was pumped from Little River and then transferred to the city without treatment. The system consisted of a 3-foot-high dam in the river, a pumping station. The first pumping plant was constructed on the east bank of the North Fork of Little River about one mile north of town. A 3-foot dam was constructed across the stream to form a suction pool for the raw water pumps. A 100,000 gallon standpipe on Gainesville Hill, pipelines and fire hydrants completed the system. With the acquisition of a water system in 1896, reliable, around-the-clock fire protection was soon to become a reality.
FIRE THREAT EASES WITH NEW DEPARTMENT
On Jan. 1, 1900, the local volunteer fire department shifted to a full-time, professionally equipped and funded force, the namesake and forebearer of the Hopkinsville Fire Department. Fire insurance rates plummeted. Soon it was determined that the low dam failed to provide enough storage to carry the city through the hot, dry summer months with no flow in the river. Consequently, a new 16-foot-high dam was built in the river, down-stream of the first one at its present site and is still in use.
TREATMENT OF WATER BEGINS FOR FIRST TIME
The water was pumped from the small stream directly to the consumer – there was no treatment. Next came a pressure filter and settling basin at the pumping station. Aluminum sulphate was used to settle the silt for the first time. Despite the new facility, many homes continued to use the cisterns. W.T. Tandy of Hopkinsville acquired interest in the Hopkinsville Water Company and soon became president. Thomas Whitlock Morris was named superintendent in July 1896. He held this position until his death in 1934.
FIRST WATERSHED LAKE DEVELOPED
In 1906-07, a dam was constructed on a branch of Little River about four miles north of town because even the 16-foot dam at the water plant did not store enough water to supply the city in dry years. This created an impoundment of 100 million gallons, which was named Lake Tandy for W.T. Tandy. This dam later was raised three feet and then five feet to its present height. In 1912, the capacity of the pumps had to be increased as more customers were being served – about 2700 as compared with several hundred when the water company began. The Hopkinsville Water Company installed two modern 105 hp high-pressure water tube boilers, a low-lift steam pump and an Allis-Chalmers high service steam pumping engine. The boilers were hand-fired. A settling basin was added, as well as an addition at the pumping station to house the Allis Chalmers Engine. A chlorinator was purchased and sterilization began for the first time.
LAKE MORRIS ENVISIONED
After several dry years, planning began in 1924 to secure another water storage reservoir on another branch of the North Fork of Little River. The dam was completed in 1929 with water storage capacity rated at 350 million gallons. This impoundment was named Lake Morris, for Thomas W. Morris. This dam was raised an additional five feet in 1956, increasing storage by about 300 million gallons.
WATER TANK BUILT ON BELMONT HILL
In 1925, the increased demand on the system to serve the domestic and fire protection service led to a 300,000-gallon water tower constructed on Belmont Hill by the Pittsburg-Des Moines Steel Company. Associated Gas and Electric Company of New York bought the Hopkinsville Water Company in 1927. Several years later, larger water transmission mains were installed greatly adding to pressure and flow at fire hydrants. The World War II years saw much progress in the water system. In 1941, the city’s first standard filter plant was put into service. In 1944, the old steam engines of 1896 were dismantled and electric high-and low-service units were placed in operation. The steam plant was placed on a standby basis. In October 1950, all the old steam equipment was dismantled and additional electric low-lift and high-service units were added.
FLOURIDE ADDED TO DRINKING WATER
On Aug. 17, 1951, largely through the efforts of Dr. Oscar Flener and the Christian County Dental Association, fluoride was added to the finished water. This was only the fifth installation of Sodium silica fluoride in Kentucky, coming the same year as Maysville, Greensburg, Elizabethtown and Louisville. The raw water storage was augmented that same year by the purchase of two abandoned rock quarries with a total capacity of 220 million gallons of water. The large one is known as Hopkinsville Stone Quarry Supply and the small one known as Blue Lake. In 1955, another 300,000 gallon steel elevated tank was constructed on East 25th Street near Virginia Street by Chattanooga Boiler and Tank Company. In the 1960’s, a 1 million gallon elevated steel tank was located on Sanderson Drive near North Drive.
TEAMWORK LEADS TO NEW LAKES
In 1962 and 1963, the city and the Soil Conservation Service reconstructed Lake Tandy and Lake Morris. Also, two more lakes are later created through this same partnership. Not only do the lakes help supply a raw water supply, they also help avoid the devastating flood damage experienced here in the 1937 and 1957 floods of Little River. A dam was completed on another branch of the North Fork in November 1962. This structure – Lake Blythe – impounds about 300 million gallons of water. Construction began June 1, 1963, on a dam on another branch of the North Fork of Little River. Lake Boxley was completed in December 1963 and impounds approximately 573 million gallons of water. In 1967, the Christian County Water District was formed, acquiring much of its water through purchase from the city. Meanwhile, service boundaries between the county district and the City were established. The city’s service area is limited to 25,000 acres. More large elevated storage tanks were added to the system on Sanderson Drive, Gainesville Hill and at the West Kentucky Industrial Park in 1966 and 1975. In October 1986, the City’s Water Treatment Plant was recognized for outstanding operation, in the 5 million-10 million gallons per day, size, in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. A new water plant was constructed in 1995-97. To read more about it, click on the Facilities Page. In 1997 the HWEA began the development of the Lake Barkley Raw Water Project. A community task force realized that Hopkinsville - Christian County had an insufficient raw water supply to meet present drought conditions and future growth. The task force investigated several options and decided on a raw water line from Lake Barkley. That same year HWEA purchased the right of way of the old Tennessee Central railroad from Hopkinsville to Gracey for the purpose of the raw water pipeline. On September 29, 2007 the first water was pumped from Lake Barkley through the 36" diameter, 27 mile pipeline to Hopkinsville. The project can deliver almost 25 million gallons of water a day from HWEA's intake site on Gentry Gray Rd. in Trigg County, to HWEA's South Quarry in Hopkinsville.
From the time of its settlement in 1797 until the first decade of the 20th century, all raw sewage was dumped into an open storm sewer system. This gravity-flow operation was released into Little River just about the location of the present Ninth Street bridge. But even as progress was made in providing cleaner drinking water and improved fire protection, health concerns remained serious – badly polluted water led to summer typhoid fever epidemics, mainly on the East side of town. In the first years after the turn of the 20th century, the sewerage system consisted of an open bed for the drying of wastes, located on what is now West 9th Street behind Sherwin–Williams. While this was an improvement, the periodically rising river would flood the beds and reintroduce bacteria into the stream – and back into the drinking water of some.
SEWERAGE FRANCHISE IS PURCHASED
The first step to provide a sewerage system was taken in 1905 when City council sold a sewerage franchise to local jeweler R.C. Hardwick. Establishing the Hopkinsville Sewerage Co. the following year, Hardwick installed a system of about eight miles of sewer lines that served about 350 residences. An open holding tank 50 feet by 20 feet was built on Young Street on the later site of McConnell’s Loose Floor and was in use for more than 30 years. By 1920, there were 2,774 homes and businesses but only 900 sewer connections. Many business and outdoor home privies were in common use here until the late 1940’s, when their use was banned. Today, over 200 miles of sewer lines serve this city of 30,000 people.
CITY PURCHASES PRIVATE LINES
In 1936, the city purchased the lines of the Hopkinsville Sewerage Co. Twenty-five miles of sewer lines were added, along with two pumping stations and what would be called the Cadiz Road Disposal Plant were built. A Sewerage Commission was created by city ordinance in 1937. L.D. Browning, Carl H. Williams and R.C. McKinney were the first commissioners, with J. Charles Fleming serving as attorney. In May 1940, the city purchased the Hopkinsville Water Co. and a joint sewerage and water works commission was established to operate the system. Sixteen years later, the city instituted a water and sewer revenue bond issue of $1.6 million and secured a $130,000 federal grant to expand the sewer system and treatment plant. Construction was completed in 1957 on 40 more miles of lines, eight new pumping stations and the treatment plant was enlarged to handle 3 million gallons per day. Effective June 1, 1957, sewer service charges were computed at 80 percent of the water bill. At year’s end in 1959, there were 5,519 connections to sewer lines and about 86 miles of lines. On Sept. 30, 1976, there were 9,472 connections, 149 miles of lines and 26 pumping stations. The city first considered the construction of a new wastewater treatment facility in 1965 to eliminate the overloading of the plant on U.S. 68-west. The long process of governmental approvals, reports, financial arrangements, design and construction proceeded and the facility became a reality, going into operation early in 1983. The 23-acre facility on Gary Lane was part of a multi-million dollar wastewater system improvement project. In 1994, this facility was upgraded to an Oxidation Ditch Plant and its capacity expanded by 3 million gallons a day to 6 million gallons a day. The expanded plant was placed into service in November 1995, part of an $11.9 million wastewater improvement and expansion project.
Today the Hopkinsville Water Environment Authority is one of the leading water and wastewater utilities in the state of Kentucky. With 66 employees to serve more than 28,000 water and wastewater customers, as well as 6,000 customers through the Christian County Water District, it has become the regional source of water for Christian County. With a strong pride in its past, HWEA remains committed to the future of Hopkinsville as we continue on in the new millennium.