Lexington, KY - Developers and builders in Lexington and Fayette County will soon add "CAP" to their routine vocabulary as a requirement of the consent decree Lexington entered into with the EPA on Jan. 3 to fix the city's troubled sewage and stormwater infrastructure.
Under the decree, they will be required to partner with city planners to ensure that developments don't exceed the capacity of the city's sewage systems. This "capacity assessment program" (CAP) is modeled on a best practice in municipal sanitary sewage management that is now in place in cities across the country.
The decree, signed into effect within days of Jim Gray becoming mayor, commits Lexington to fulfilling timelines and meeting goals negotiated between LFUCG and EPA. Work has been well underway, however, since the administration of former Mayor Jim Newberry elected to go forward with an overhaul while issues with the decree were settled in court. Under Newberry, the city has been investigating and uncovering significant problems with sewage infrastructure, while gathering data and facts to inform decision making.
Lexington now is on the verge of adopting a series of best practices to bring greater efficiencies and effectiveness in managing infrastructure. Transparency, engagement of all stakeholders, and public discussion and education have been made priorities by city planners.
Roughly 36.5 million gallons of raw sewage spilled annually into the environment between 2001 and 2006 at the South Elkhorn sewage pump station, located along Bowman's Mill Road in Lexington. During that same time span, the East Hickman pump station, located along Buckhorn Drive, had yearly overflows amounting to about 6 million gallons.
The South Elkhorn station is now fixed. According to Charlie Martin, director of Lexington Division of Water Quality, overflows at that station no longer happen during rain storms. The East Hickman station remains to be fixed.
South Elkhorn reflects how quickly the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) got to work when the EPA cited Lexington for violations of the Clean Water Act and lodged the consent decree in 2008. East Hickman is an example of the work that lays ahead.
Lexington's sewage problems occur in numerous places along its system of approximately 1,400 miles of pipes, 29,000 manholes (and still counting), 80 pump stations and two treatment plants. The consent decree lodged by the EPA and the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet (EPPC) noted that 111 places had been identified with recurring overflows of raw sewage, and that number is rising as investigations by the city proceed. Many of the sewage system overflows (SSOs) are concentrated in older areas of Lexington with aging infrastructure that has been saddled with increasing pressures. Also complicating the picture were practices back in the 1960s, before the Environmental Protection Agency existed, said Martin - including expedient fixes, such as troublesome cross connections that flow sewage into the storm water system, in order to prevent sewage backup into residences. The Clean Water Act (CWA), passed in 1972, made clean water a national priority and gave citizens and communities recourse to engage the EPA to address violations of that act by local governments. Continuing violations of the CWA in Lexington brought more raw sewage into some neighborhoods. In 2007, the Fayette County Neighborhood Council along with others filed a complaint, which engaged the EPA and the EPPC and led to the consent decree.
The consent decree calls upon LFUCG to remediate its sewage system over a period of 11 to 13 years. The cost is projected at $250 million to $300 million. The decree spells out costly penalties that could be applied should LFUCG fail to complete scheduled remedial work on the sewage system. The remedies and timetable are still to be negotiated between LFUCG and EPA.
There is flexibility in instances where LFUCG would be able to demonstrate that it was acting in good faith to meet deadlines and conditions outside its control caused delay. The aim is to bring the LFUCG sewage system into compliance with CWA over time. The decree also confers upon LFUCG authority to impose penalties upon businesses that violate regulations on storm water runoff.
The key word is capacity. First, the LFUCG must, under the decree, assess the capacity of the sanitary sewer system. The city has also elected to assess the separate storm water system. Then it must identify places where capacity is being exceeded in the sanitary sewers causing SSOs, or in the case of the storm water system, flooding. City planners then will come up with proposals for fixing the systems and will negotiate with the EPA to arrive at a schedule for repairs and modifications. The creation of a capacity assurance program (CAP) and adherence to it will ensure that Lexington does not slide back into exceeding the sanitary sewage system's capacity. CAP will enable developers to see if there is sufficient sewage system capacity for development projects they may have in mind and to partner with LUCG to find solutions.
"When we had the EPA back in '06 and '07 negotiating the consent decree," said Martin, "one thing I tried to make clear to them is that we as a community did not understand the behavior of our sewer system well enough to be able to make decisions and commit to the document."
Martin said that the city decided on some early action projects, such as the new South Elkhorn pump station mentioned above. Meanwhile, city planners brought in consultants to undertake a thorough assessment of the sanitary sewer system.
For the capacity assessment, the Lexington area was divided in three parts. Each division included different sewer sheds, which are roughly the same as the watersheds that the city/county inhabits. Group 1, including the Wolf Run, East Hickman and West Hickman sewage sheds, would be the first to be assessed.
"The reason why they're together is that, predominantly, the majority of the known problems are in West Hickman and Wolf Run," said Martin. "East Hickman was included in that because it pumps into West Hickman."
Group 2 is made up of Town Branch and Cane Run sewage sheds. Group 3 has the North Elkhorn and South Elkhorn sewage sheds. To see a map of Fayette County sewage sheds online, go to http://tinyurl.com/lfucgmap.
The capacity assessment for Group 1 has been completed. A map dotted with color-coded circles indicates problem areas. West Hickman has 93 different SSO locations, and Wolf Run has 27.
"The Lexington Mall area has 11 manholes that overflow at various times," Martin said. The capacity assessment report will be turned in to the EPA in March.
"The assessment is really a collection of facts," said Martin. "What's broken here? How much flow is here? There's not really anything to discuss. It's just facts. Six months later, we submit a remedial measures plan for Group 1 that says what we are going to do about those facts." That will be a time for discussion.
Group 2 and Group 3 will follow the same course but with later time frames, each following six months after the other.
"We've been working hard at this for a couple years," said Cheryl Taylor, commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works, who recently returned to her environmental oversight post in LFUCG. She described the extensive work done to collect information. Smoke testing, robotic cameras traveling through sewer lines and site investigations brought much to light. Thousands of buried manhole covers were discovered and uncovered. Cracked pipes, faulty connections, tree roots blocking pipe flow and other problems were found. The city now has photographs, measurements and knowledge derived from data to act on.
"With these facts presented to the public and with public input, we're going to be able to determine what we are going to repair," said Taylor. "What's the standard that we want? How much capacity do we plan for in the future? That's going to help determine the cost."
"This is an opportunity of a lifetime to make a lasting change for a community in its system and infrastructure," Taylor said. She worked as an engineering manager with Proctor and Gamble before entering into public service. "When you come from private industry and go to work for government, the opportunity is amazing."
She sees the opportunity to employ tools that have been used for decades by private industry - databases and management systems.
"Now we have volumes of data," Taylor said. "Unless we have systems, we're not going to be any better off in 10 years from today. We'll fix what we see today, but without that system, we can't sustain that level of performance. We're being given the opportunity with this job to put systems in place for this city that will allow us to maintain these sewers, and we'll never get in that situation again."
Under the consent decree, LFUCG is also directed to do a thorough study of flooding issues in Lexington. Bids open on Feb. 11 for a consultant to implement that.
"This consultant is going to help us develop a master plan for the drainage system in Fayette County," said Martin. This program will especially involve developers, construction sites and commercial structures that have drainage basins, parking lots and other concerns with storm water runoff.
All of this work is unfolding with the engagement of all the stakeholders, said Martin. Todd Johnson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Lexington, said he's been at partnership meetings about twice a year with LFUCG and has participated in quarterly stakeholder meetings. Developers and builders were also a part of the process of developing new storm water regulations, he said.
"Our developments are already under scrutiny and rules and regulations as pertaining to storm water," said Johnson.
The stakeholder meetings are all inclusive, including business and building interests and representatives from watershed groups and other citizen and environmental groups.
"They are two bright rays of hope in this situation," said Ken Cooke, speaking of Taylor and Martin. Cooke used to be with the Kentucky Division of Water and now works with the Friends of Wolf Run watershed organization.
"Charlie knows pipes, technology and project management. Cheryl knows how to manage large organizations of technical people," he said.
Public Meetings on Sanitary Sewers Remedial Measures
:
March 7, 6 p.m., Fayette County Extension Office, 1140 Red Mile Place
March 14, 6 p.m., Victory Baptist Church, 2261 Armstrong Mill Road
March 21, 6 p.m., Tates Creek Christian Church, 3150 Tates Creek Road