11 July 2022  (18:11-UTC-07 Tango 06) 20 Tir 1401/11 Dhu l-Hijja 1443/13 Ding-Wei 4720

“We can live without electricity, we can live without the Internet. One thing you definitely can’t live without is water. And it becomes something that we sometimes take for granted.”-Adam Ledford, City of Marion

Beginning 24JUN2022, personnel with Kentucky Army National Guard’s 2061st Multi-Role Bridge Company, as well as the 206th Engineer Battalion, 201st Engineer Battalion, and 103rd Chemical Battalion, have been working to bring potable water to the town of Marion.

Side note: Despite what dictionaries/word-smiths say is the source of the word potable, people should pronounce potable as pot-able (or pot-a-bul), as in the water is able to be used in a pot for cooking/drinking. Non-potable, of course, is water that is not able to be used in a pot for cooking/drinking.

On 22JUN2022, it was reported that administrators in Crittenden County were scrambling to solve a water shortage problem caused by attempts by City of Marion administrators to drain Lake George.

Lake George was the primary water source for Marion, but in April erosion in the lake’s levee suddenly developed into a sink-hole.  An attempt was made to drain the Lake George, to prevent total failure of the levee and a resulting massive flood of the town.  At first the standard way of draining was not making good progress, so they decided to breech the levee on purpose.

Marion officials had ordered water collection to be switched to the smaller City Lake (aka Old City Lake, which looks more like a big pond), thinking it held one month’s worth of water, and that surely would be enough, but whoopsie, turns out City Lake held only 18-days worth!  Apparently what was negatively affecting Lake George is also affecting nearby lakes: “Throughout that process, we were able to begin to put together the picture that it looked like what was causing the issue had something to do with our intake system and damage to our intake system that runs underneath the levee and into the bottom of the lake. Bad went to worse, we lost over a week’s water supply just because of new data that was developed on our secondary source, which had now become our primary source. So, in essence, you can argue that we lost not only one water supply, but quite honestly, we lost two-plus water supplies in this process.”-Adam Ledford, City of Marion

There are several options for the City of Marion; rely on other cities and other counties for water, which will greatly jack-up water costs for Marion residents.  Or, have the Governor call in the National Guard and make emergency taxpayer funded water deliveries until a long term solution proves viable.

Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency and initially deployed approximately 20 Army National Guard Combat Engineers.

WSIL video report, three days of potable water left as of 06JUL2022, multiple new leaks:

On 07JUL2022, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced it will attempt to connect Marion with water from the Crittenden-Livingston Water District.  Also, Webster County Water has been suppling water, and, Marion officials approved a plan to build a three miles long system to connect to the Caldwell County Water District in Princeton.  However, all these expensive water connections to other systems will supply only half of the City of Marion’s water needs. Additional efforts are being attempted.

The City of Marion is a rural city with a population of about 3-thousand.

U.S. Food Crisis, 2022: WALMART FEEDS FOR FREEDOM? THE MILITARY CHOWS DOWN ON THE REAL HUNGER GAMES!

U.S. Disaster, 2022: MONTANA MILITIA DEPLOYS AFTER MAJOR FLOODING!

Disaster 2021: IDAHO MILITIA & BOISE FD TRAIN FOR SWIFT WATER RESCUES, WITHOUT WATER!