Bardstown and the surrounding Nelson County area are greatly expanding their water supply thanks to a new partnership.

Louisville Water has joined the North Nelson Water District and the City of Bardstown to build new water mains alongside the I-65 corridor and highway 245.

This will connect the area to Louisville's water supply, giving it access to an additional 15 million gallons of water per day, meaning clean water for Nelson County residents and the distilleries that call it home.

We're going to be spending about $29 million to run pipelines down what we call the I-65 corridor, down I-65, and then up highway 245, and then that'll allow us to supply up to 7 million gallons a day to Nelson County, with a big chunk of that being able to go to the city of Bardstown when they need it.

So it's 15 million gallons to the region, because the work that we're going down, I-65 helps service Bullitt County, help service Mead County, Hardin County, that kind of thing.

It's 7 million gallons to Nelson County with, again, a big portion of that being able to go to the city.

Bardstown.

It's the first and most important thing is providing good water to your Nelson County and Bardstown residents.

And like I said, the, you know, we're looking have been looking and searching for industrial land, and we're working on something now and then it's going to take water, then recruit these industries that's coming in, which provides jobs for the local citizens.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved two contracts, one between the city of Bardstown and the North.

Nelson Water District, and another between the North Nelson Water District and the Louisville Water Company.

This took the three of us coming together, figuring out what the issues were resolving those issues so that we could come up with something that was mutually beneficial to not only the organizations, but more importantly to the communities that we serve.

We've done at least three water studies during that time period to try to tell us how much water we're going to need, and where would that source of water come from?

And each one of those water studies identified Louisville Water Company as one of those sources that we could possibly partner with.

And about five years ago, as the distillery industry really went into a major expansion mode.

And you all know that Marshall had known as a bourbon capital of the world.

It's, it's it's a title we get for a reason.

We have six distilleries in the city of Bardstown in two out in the county.

They consume about 25% of our daily water production and sales.

And with the growth that they've got planned, it can grow by 100% when they get to 100% of their capacity.

This is going to last for decades and decades and decades for the future of this county and the city of Bardstown.

And it really we're working on some industrial parks and things as we speak.

There's always a need for the for the water.

Construction for the project is currently underway and expected to be completed in 2026.