PSC rejects Louisville Water’s Lexington pipeline plan – Business First of Louisville:

Instead, the PSC has approved 'sx plan to build a new watefr treatment plant on the Kentucky River inOwen County. The Lexingto n utility will build a pipeline from the plantr to its system in Fayette Louisville Water had argued that it coulde meetCentral Kentucky's water needs at a lower cost than Kentucky-American by extending its currenrt infrastructure along Interstate 64 into The estimated cost for Louisville Water's proposa l was $87 million to $112 million, dependin on the diameter of the pipeline, accordingh to the PSC. Kentucky-American's plan will cost an estimateed $160 million.
The PSC said its stafr conducted an economic analysixs thatfound long-term costs for both projects to be "nearlgy identical." Also, Kentucky-American obtained construction bids and all othefr regulatory approvals for its plan, whereae Louisville Water did not provide information about the locationn of key facilities, who would build those facilitied and other important data, the PSC Louisville Water's "proposal never evolved beyond a series of the PSC said in a news In a written statement, Louisville Water President Greg Heitzmajn said he is disappointed with the PSC's but will continue to look for opportunities to partner with other regional water providers.
Louisville Water "presented a very compelling argumen t that our pipeline proposal isthe low-cosgt solution taking advantage of an abundant, reliablee supply from the Ohio River," Heitzmanm said. "Unfortunately, the PSC did not agree." Louisville Water is building a $50 37-mile pipeline to Frankfort, but now will not be able to extendf the line to Construction on Jefferson County portion ofthe Louisville-Frankfort pipelins will begin this year, with projecr work in Shelby and Franklin counties beginning in 2009. Completion of the full projec t is expectedin 2010.
"Louisville has tens of milliones of gallons of excess water capacithy that can be sharedd withneighboring communities," Heitzman said. "A regional pipeline will allow us to provide communities that have suffered througu droughts and water shortageswith reliable, high affordable water."
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