"When Sekisui S-LEC America opened the doors of its new plant on 23 acres in the Winchester Industrial Park on Oct. 9, the automotive supplier provided a welcome boost for the Clark county economy. The $43 million facility will employ 80 in the manufacture of interlayer film and sound acoustic film for use in automotive glass. Sekisui officials say Winchester was selected for the site of the company's first film manufacturing plant in the United States because of its proximity to customers along the Interstate 75 corridor. Also key to the site selection decision, however, was the availability of an increasingly scarce and precious resource: water.
Behind the Oct. 9 scene of celebratory speeches by company officials and local and state dignitaries lurked a challenge that must be overcome if the company is to transition into a planned second phase in the summer of 2010. The company is counting on Winchester to provide a daily supply of water in an amount far in excess of the city's current capacity.
"The community is committed to providing the water that Sekisui needs by the time that they need it," said Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner. "What we have been told is that they plan to make a corporate decision around January '09 and, if they decide to go to phase two, that the additional water will be needed by the August 2010 time frame."
Mayor Burtner and other Winchester officials confirm, however, that under present conditions, they are not prepared to meet the additional demand.
"Their phase one demand is about 300,000 gallons per day, and their total phase one and phase two demand is 1.6 million gallons per day. We don't have the capacity to meet that phase two demand," acknowledged Winchester Municipal Utilities general manager Vernon Azevedo. "That commitment was made several years back by Winchester and by BWSC (the Bluegrass Water Supply Commission.) It was prior to the change in the approach with Kentucky American building a plant; this was when BWSC was going to build a plant. With the changed conditions, we're still proceeding that BWSC will still be able to make that commitment, although we're now looking at alternatives should BWSC not be able to meet its commitments."
According to Burtner, those alternatives include the construction of a water plant in Winchester. "Another option would be to continue forward with what's now referred to as the Kentucky American/BWSC strategy," he continued. "That would involve a 25mgd (million gallons per day) plant at pool three (of the Kentucky River.) 5 (mgd) of the 25 (mgd) would be for members of the BWSC; 20 (mgd) of the 25 (mgd) would be for Kentucky American to meet their growth needs through the year 2030."
The Public Service Commission has scheduled three days of hearings beginning on Nov. 26 on the proposal by Kentucky American to construct an additional treatment plant on the Owen-Franklin county line. Water processed by the plant would flow to customers via a 30-mile pipeline through Franklin, Scott and Fayette counties. Kentucky American spokesperson Valeria Swope said water company officials are confident that with PSC approval by early 2008, they can complete rights-of-way negotiations and/or condemnations along the proposed route of the pipeline and that construction of the plant and pipeline could be completed in time to enable Winchester to meet its commitment to Sekisui.
A possible wrinkle in that timing is the potential for an alternative proposal by the Louisville Water Company, a municipal utility not regulated by the PSC, to provide service from Shelbyville to Lexington. "It was impossible not to know that the proposal was floating around out there," said commission spokesman Andrew Melynkovich. "So," he explained, "the PSC issued an open records request to the Louisville Water Co. requesting a lengthy list of documents pertaining to discussions they may or may not have had with Kentucky American Water and asking for some basic information about this pipeline proposal from Shelbyville to Lexington. Then what Louisville Water Company did was to respond to the open records request, and at the same time, they made a motion to the PSC to be brought into the case as an intervener, which makes them a party to the case. The PSC granted that motion, which means now that the Louisville Water Company will be able to put on testimony during the hearing on Nov. 26 as to their proposal and will be able to cross examine witnesses for the other party, including Kentucky American, about their proposal."
Melynkovich clarified that there presently is no proposal formally pending from Louisville Water Company before the Public Service Commission.
Many local officials in the region, concerned about Central Kentucky's reputation for providing basic resources to manufacturing, are watching the situation in Winchester closely. "This is not something technical — this is pure gallons," noted the WMU's Azevedo. "The numbers are simple, and Central Kentucky has an Achilles heel here and it's the water supply. We need to move forward with finding that resolution, not for Kentucky American or not for Winchester but for the whole region."
Delaware, Ohio, a city of 33,000 near Columbus, had been in competition for the Sekisui plant but lost because of a $1 million hookup fee and the city's unwillingness to invest in significantly increasing its water supply capacity. "We were not in a position to provide the expanded capacity. It was cost prohibitive," said city spokesman Lee Yoakum.
"Water, to me, is perhaps our most fundamental service," said Mayor Burtner, who advocates the development of an inter-connected grid system similar to those operated by gas and electric producers. "You can do without a lot of things, but you can't do without water — drinking water, potable water, clean water. If we're not able to supply the needs of our region with adequate, cost-effective amounts of drinking water, then we have serious problems. I think it's a crucial issue, even if we were eight inches over the annual average rainfall amount as opposed to being eight inches under."