A southern Kentucky county will get major upgrades to its water system in Edmonson County.

Low water levels and parts of the green River have created high concerns.

Senator Mitch McConnell and Congressman Brett Guthrie were among those in Brownsville Tuesday to announce millions in funding for the project.

Today is truly monumental a the county as we celebrate an investment that will have a lasting impact on the people of this county for generations to come.

That investment is more than $29.7 million in state and federal funding for improvements at the Edmonson County Water District.

This came about because there were dams and locks that were built by the federal government over 100 years ago that needed to be either repaired, replaced or removed.

And so the decision was to remove them for this area.

A Corps of Engineers decision that led to concerns and challenges during dry seasons.

By doing that, it lowered the water level to the point where there was risk to the intake for Edmonson County water to be able to provide water for their citizens.

There's been a lot of frustration with the things that have happened.

It's a challenge.

A big part of the year to be able to pump water out.

State Representative Michael Meredith is an Edmonson County native.

His family here for generations.

The people here are extremely important to me.

They're my friends.

They're my neighbors.

They're my family members.

Making sure that they have good, clean drinking water is one of the most important priorities that I have in this role.

He says the problems started to surface in the summer of 2022, when the Corps of Engineers began removing locks and dams they believed were aging and deteriorating.

We saw the water level go down much more than had been predicted and projected by the Corps of Engineers, he says.

Water levels were 4 to 8ft below initial projections.

The solution has been a shared effort between local, state and federal government.

Responded to what a lot of other folks had done, both state and local and in the U.S.

House.

That's what we're all here together with the meetings and all of that elaborative work.

The funding is primarily for two major projects to build a new intake structure on the green River, and for modernizing and making upgrades to the water treatment plant.

Congressman Guthrie says it will help meet the needs of a growing community.

You look at the area of this county that's next to Warren County.

That's where the trends park, that's where a lot of the growth is coming.

So access to utilities, access to clean drinking water and the volume that's necessary for economic development is going to be accessible to this area.

And I think it's going to continue to grow.

To have Senator McConnell and Congressman Guthrie take the interest that they did in this project to right the wrong that was created by the Corps of Engineers, means a great deal, because we couldn't have done it just the local level or just the state level by ourselves.

It took that federal investment to actually make it happen.

Meredith says his constituents are grateful to see the project move forward.

They're happy to see resolution.

For Kentucky Edition.

I'm Laura Rogers.

The Edmonson County Water District serves roughly 12,000 people.

The project will now move forward with engineering work, competitive bidding, and the construction process.