HAZARD – Officials say they hope to be able to restore water service to most areas affected by a shortage in Perry County by the end of the day Friday.

Hazard City Manager Paul Feltner noted on Friday morning that water is being fed to the north end of the county, which serves about 1,200 customers, and he is continuing to monitor storage in the Grapevine tank, which feeds water to the areas near Grapevine and Chavies. The tank held no storage on Thursday, but has risen to six feet as of Friday morning. Feltner said about 25 feet of storage is normal.

On the south end of the county, water is being fed into the two tanks on the Left Fork of Maces Creek at Pratt Mountain and Hall Mountain, the former of which feeds water into the Leatherwood area. Filling those two tanks will play an important role in feeding water on to the Right and Middle Forks of Maces Creek, and then onto Leatherwood.

“Once we get the Middle Fork and Right Fork reenergized, then we can be prepared to send water on to Leatherwood,” Feltner said.

But running water to Leatherwood will take some time, he added, as the community is farther away from the tanks.

The recent upswing in temperatures is playing a positive role in the progression of restoring water service. The intake at the treatment plant in Hazard, which became frozen over on two occasions last week, has not suffered a freeze event in seven days due to both rising temperatures and the installation of a heat lamp and air compressor at the intake to prevent freezing. Consequently, the plant has been producing around 4.6 million gallons of water each day.

“The weather has been helping us immensely,” said Feltner.

Barring any further setbacks, Feltner said he hopes that service will be restored to the northern and southern and of the City of Hazard’s water system as early as Friday, though he added that the Leatherwood community may have to wait a bit longer.

“We’re hoping we can have water back on at the end of this day, into the evening in the north and south end except Leatherwood,” he said.

And as crews continue to work to restore that service, at present an emergency shortage declaration is still in effect, as is a boil water advisory for the entire City of Hazard system.