MARTIN COUNTY, Ky. – A public meeting was held Wednesday evening to address concerns as Martin County Water District continues to struggle with water outages.

The company explained what they were doing to attempt to remedy the outages which started during cold temperatures last week. They were faced with two options, they said. The first would be cutting off water to the entire county while they attempted to fill the tank reservoir. The other would be to strategically cut water to different areas of the county. Unfortunately, even after doing the latter, the company admitted that they were still having difficulty.

The company blamed the difficulties last week on weather, high usage and meter issues

Residents in areas of Martin County that had been cut off demanded answers and action. One man stood up and was stopped from approaching those heading the meeting by a State Trooper. That exchange was captured on video. He was escorted out after being threatened with arrest for disorderly conduct.

Even in light of the outages, the company released a public statement saying they would seek a rate increase.

Joe Hammond, the business director of Martin County Water District, has reached out to Kentucky Rural Water for assistance to figure out exactly how much of an increase the company needs.

Water is being distributed at multiple locations in the County.

“Emergency Managment will be giving out water in the morning (Thursday) at the Tug Valley Sanitation plant in Warfield. The address is 1033 Hode Rd. They are also going tomorrow to get water to give out to customers in the Inez area. You will be notified when it is available there,” reads a post to their page.

Source: http://www.lex18.com/story/37244766/tempers-flare-as-martin-co-water-crisis-continues