Evaluation of the drought susceptibility of water supplies used in the Kentucky River Basin in 1988
Year: 1991
Type: report
Abstract: Major public water supply systems and self-supplied commercial and industrial water systems in the Kentucky River basin were inventoried to evaluate the adequacy of raw-water sources used in 1988 to meet demands on these systems during drought.All water systems that withdraw at least 10,000 gallons per day are regulated through a permitting program by the Division of Water, Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.A total of 54 permitted water facilities were inventoried.The inventory indicated that these facilities withdrew more than 86.4 Mgal/d in 1988.The inventory indicated that 31 permitted public-water systems furnished water to an additional 39 public-water suppliers in the basin.These 70 public suppliers withdrew about 80 Mgal/d and furnished almost 40 Mgal/d to more than 554,000 people.Domestic per capita use averaged 72 gallons per day in the study area.The study indicated that almost 98 percent of the water withdrawn by the permitted facilities was from surface-water sources.Sources of water were adequate to meet demands throughout the study area except for those of public suppliers at Lexington, Georgetown, and Stanford, which are likely to have water-supply shortages during drought conditions.Several water systems could not be evaluated for their susceptibility to droughts because the adequacy of their source was unknown.This was attributed to lack of streamflow or ground-water information.However, none of these systems had problems during drought periods in recent years.In addition, five systems may have water-supply problems because they are operating near or greater than 80 percent of design capacity of their treatment plants.
DOI: 10.3133/wri914105
Authors: C.J. Sholar, P.A. Wood
Language: English
Subfield: Water Science and Technology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W1541175922