Water Department
During months with little rainfall, water can be pumped from the Beech Fork River to holding lagoons at the rate of 6 million gallons per day to supplement the lake. The Water Plant and Distribution System employs 10 full time operators and 11 field crew members.
History
- 1903- The City begins treating its water.
- 1904- Water is pumped from the new plant on East Broadway, now the Civil War Museum. During months of drought, water was hauled by truck to the treatment plant.
- 1944- A permanent line to the Beech Fork River was installed to supplement the lake.
- 1963- Sympson lake construction was complete with a capacity to handle 1.2 billion gallons
- 1965- The current water treatment plant opened with a pumping capacity of two million gallons per day with 2 clearwells being constructed with 150,000 gallons each.
- 1973- Treatment expansion to increase to 3 million gallons per day and added a 250 hp high service pump.
- 1984-Upgraded existing 3 filter units to include tube settlers, added another high service pump, increased the low services pumps, resulting in 4.5 million gallons of water treatment and pumping capacity. Clearwell No. 3 was added with 280,000 gallons of finish water storage.
- 1994- New sludge pumps, pit, and large lagoons added adjacent to Sympson Lake to meet EPA discharge requirements improving water quality of Buffalo Creek. A raw water pump station was added to the Beechfork River to supplement the reservoir during dry weather months.
- 1996- No. 4 filter was constructed taking the treatment capacity of the plant to 6 MGD.
- 1997-Flood of record hit Bardstown. Members of the community worked together to construct a sandbag levee around the water plant preventing catastrophic damage.
- 1999-Permanent Flood levee was completed to protect Bardstown Water Plant from flood waters.
- 2000- Actiflo system added as the initial treatment process to improve water quality.
- 2010- The treatment plant can now treat up to 8 million gallons per day with a 1 million gallon glass lined clearwell for water storage.
- 2017- Backwash line upsized to 24" and top of filter chlorination added at the Water Plant.