About Glasgow Water Company

History

The Glasgow Water Company is a municipally owned water and wastewater utility that has been serving the community for over 70 years. The Glasgow Water Company provides water to Glasgow and Barren County, and wholesales water to six other surrounding utilities. In all, the GWC provides water to approximately 48,600 residents and 1,257 commercial and industrial customers.

One of the first known watering holes in Glasgow was the Big Spring which was located on the North Public Square. Years later, as demand for water grew, fuel powered pumps were placed on Beaver Creek at the site known today as the Beaver Creek Water Treatment Plant. This facility pumped raw water from the creek to a reservoir on Lexington Drive. The first treated water system in Glasgow was located along East Main Street near the current location of Gorin Park. The treatment facility pumped water from the South Fork Creek and was owned and operated by the Kentucky – West Virginia Utility Company. The water system was purchased by the City of Glasgow for $200,000 in May of 1937.

In 1938 the Beaver Creek Water Plant was constructed and the existing pump house was converted into a residence for the operator. The 1 million gallon per day plant was constructed in cooperation with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which was created as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” in response to the Great Depression. During 1958 the water system was improved and the treatment facility was expanded to its current capacity of 2.5 million gallons per day. However, in 1964 the GWC had reached its limit of water supply at the Beaver Creek Plant and needed another supply of water. The only available supply that would accommodate future growth was the Barren River Lake Impoundment that was under construction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1965 the construction began on the Barren River Reservoir Water Treatment Plant, and the 6 million gallon per day facility was completed in 1967. In 2005 construction began to double that capacity to 12 million gallons per day at a cost of six million dollars. The construction was completed in early 2007. A new record for treating water was recorded at the newly upgraded facility during the month of August 2007 when the plant treated over 229 million gallons of water.

The Glasgow Water Company currently operates both the Beaver Creek and the Barren River Reservoir water plants and a waste water treatment plant. In 2007 both water plants combined to pump over 2.8 billion gallons of treated water with an average daily flow of 7.8 million gallons. During this same time the Waste Water Treatment Plant treated over 738 million gallons of waste water. The GWC currently employees 43 full-time employees and provides service to almost 16,000 water customers and over 5,700 sewer customers. The GWC is the 13th largest water utility in Kentucky for population served, and maintains over 871 miles of water mains and 143 miles of sewer mains.