Lexington, KY - Back in December, my council column discussed the 2008 EPA Consent Decree between the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Consent Decree settled lawsuits over Lexington's violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act, which arose in large part from releases of raw sewage into our streams and waterways.
As a part of the EPA Consent Decree, LFUCG is required to overhaul our sanitary sewer system. The problems occur during heavy rain events, when the flow in sanitary sewers increases by about 500 percent. Most of this increase is from rain water that seeps into broken underground sewer lines, or that flows from downspouts and drains into the system through illegal taps.
Our sanitary sewer lines and pump stations simply can't handle all of this rain water. During heavy storms, raw sewage ends up in people's basements because the main sewer lines are either too small or are clogged, and the flow gets backed up and has to go somewhere. Our pump stations and treatment plants can't handle this much water either, and LFUCG ends up opening the spigot to send the rain water and raw sewage into streams and waterways.
To comply with the EPA Consent Decree, LFUCG's consultants have proposed a number of options for fixing our sanitary sewers, based on designs to withstand rain from a two-year storm, a five-year storm, or a 10-year storm. The costs of fixing our sanitary sewer system are staggering. The estimated cost of upgrades to handle a two-year storm is $540 million. A five-year storm system would cost $718 million, and a 10-year storm system would cost about $814 million.
So what do we get for all of this money? Because the choices are largely incremental, and increase capacity further and further out into the system, most of the upgrades will include the following: replacing and upgrading sewer lines and pump stations, adding new pump stations, upgrading wastewater treatment plants, and installing large overflow storage tanks at pump stations and treatment plants.
These system upgrades will be funded through substantial increases in sanitary sewer fees. For a two-year storm, average sewer bills would increase by at least 5 to 10 percent per year over the next 13 years. The increases for upgrades for a five-year or 10-year storm would be even greater. For a two-year storm upgrade, average monthly sewer bills would be about 138 percent higher in year 2025.
At a minimum, the EPA Consent Decree requires Lexington to upgrade its sanitary sewer system to handle a two-year storm. This might be our best choice, since LFUCG is also working to disconnect downspouts and floor drains from sanitary sewers. By getting more rainwater out of the system, an upgrade to handle a two-year storm will be even more effective. And we can continue to upgrade the system later by adding to what we have already done.
The full council will meet to review our options and make the best decision possible. Because many folks thought the 2008 sewer fee increases were supposed to address many of these problems, it is important that council members understand - and help others to understand - how past sewer fee increases have been spent and how they were presented to the public. For more information on upcoming sewer improvements, please visit www.lexingtonky.gov/index.aspx?page=2725.