# Mayor's EPA Address - February 19, 2008 > Auto-transcribed civic record · February 19, 2008 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/388 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/388?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2008-02-19 - **Last revised**: February 2, 2026 - **Length**: 3,075 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Council convened on February 19, 2008, in the evening at the Mayor's office, with the Mayor presiding over the session. The meeting focused on a single significant agenda item regarding a Consent Decree with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State, which was approved by the council. During the session, one motion was brought to a vote, with no public comments recorded for this meeting. The council successfully addressed the environmental compliance matter, demonstrating efficient handling of this important regulatory issue. ## Votes and Decisions The meeting included one recorded vote on a significant environmental compliance matter. **Consent Decree Approval** The board voted to approve a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state. The motion passed, though specific vote counts and individual member positions were not recorded in the available documentation. No transcript timestamp was provided for this vote. The consent decree represents a formal agreement between the governing body and regulatory agencies to address environmental compliance issues. Such agreements typically outline specific remediation steps, timelines, and monitoring requirements that must be followed to resolve regulatory violations. Due to limitations in the meeting records, additional details about the voting process, including whether this was conducted as a roll call vote, the specific vote tally, or which members spoke in favor of or against the measure, are not available. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed several significant financial matters related to environmental compliance and infrastructure improvements, totaling over $31 million in expenditures and penalties. The city faces a $425,000 EPA fine for Clean Water Act violations. This penalty represents enforcement action by the Environmental Protection Agency against the municipality for non-compliance with federal water quality standards. Three major environmental and infrastructure projects were discussed: • **Stream and Habitat Restoration Project** - $1,000,000 allocated for stream and habitat restoration work, including the creation of a greenway in and around Cane Run in Cold Stream Park. This project aims to improve water quality and provide recreational amenities for residents. • **Green Infrastructure Initiative** - $230,000 designated for green infrastructure projects specifically designed to reduce stormwater runoff. These projects will help address water management issues through environmentally sustainable solutions. • **Flooding Assessment and Remediation** - $30,000,000 committed to flooding assessment and remedying flooding projects. This substantial investment represents the largest financial commitment discussed, indicating the severity of flooding issues facing the community and the comprehensive approach needed to address them. The combined financial impact of these items totals $31,655,000, with the majority ($30,000,000) dedicated to flood-related improvements. The EPA fine and associated remediation projects suggest the city is addressing both regulatory compliance issues and underlying infrastructure problems that may have contributed to the violations. These expenditures reflect a significant commitment to environmental compliance, water quality improvement, and flood mitigation infrastructure across the municipality. ## Contested Items The primary contested item during the February 19, 2008 meeting was a proposed increase in sanitary sewer fees, which faced community opposition. **Sanitary Sewer Fee Increase** The proposed increase in sanitary sewer fees generated resistance from community members who opposed the higher costs. The Mayor addressed this opposition directly, acknowledging the unpopular nature of fee increases while defending the necessity of the proposal. According to the meeting discussion, the Mayor stated that while no one welcomes the prospect of higher fees, the increase was essential to fund necessary improvements to the city's sewer systems. The Mayor emphasized that the fee increase was not optional but required to maintain and upgrade the municipal sewer infrastructure. The nature of the opposition centered on community concerns about the financial burden the increased fees would place on residents. However, the specific details of community member comments, the exact amount of the proposed increase, or the timeline for implementation were not detailed in the available meeting materials. The Mayor's response focused on framing the fee increase as a necessary investment in critical infrastructure rather than an arbitrary cost increase, attempting to address community concerns by explaining the underlying need for sewer system improvements that would justify the additional expense to residents. The outcome of this contested item and whether the fee increase was ultimately approved was not specified in the available meeting documentation. ## Consent Decree with EPA and State The Urban County Council approved a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act. The Mayor presented this resolution to the council for consideration. The consent decree addresses identified violations in the local sewer systems and establishes a framework for compliance with federal clean water regulations. As part of the agreement, the county will pay a fine to settle the violations. The decree also outlines specific steps and improvements that must be implemented to bring the sewer systems into compliance with Clean Water Act requirements. The resolution was approved by the council, formally accepting the terms of the consent decree with both the EPA and state regulatory authorities. This agreement provides a path forward for addressing the environmental violations while establishing clear requirements for system improvements to prevent future non-compliance issues. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the consent decree with the EPA and the state --- ## Full transcript Good evening from the Mayor's office. This evening is the first time a Mayor has addressed Lexington citizens from this office. I'm taking this unusual step because of the magnitude of the agreement that was approved this afternoon by the Urban County Council. This agreement is significant for everyone living in Lexington now, as well as for those who will live here in the future. For many years, thanks to the efforts of the Fayette County Neighborhood Council and many environmental activists, we have all known that Lexington's sewer systems have not worked well. As you may know, we have two sewer systems in our city. The sanitary sewer system, which handles wastewater from industrial sites and from residential kitchens and bathrooms, and the storm sewer system that handles rainwater and surface water runoff throughout our community. Rainwater in the sanitary sewer system is treated at one of our two wastewater treatment plants, the Town Branch plant, located between Old Frankfort Pike and Leestown Road, and the West Hickman plant, located off Tate's Creek Road in Jessamine County. After being treated, the wastewater is discharged into either the Town Branch or West Hickman Creek, and ultimately it flows into the Kentucky River. On the other hand, stormwater is not treated. Instead, the storm sewer system transports rainwater and other surface water runoff from receptacles along our streets and roads to various discharge points in local streams. Our local streams then carry our stormwater on to the Kentucky River. Over the years, our city has failed to properly maintain these two systems. That lack of maintenance has created an assortment of operational problems, but the end result of those problems has been that we have been discharging wastewater from our sewer systems into our streams in violation of the Clean Water Act. Moreover, the systems were designed so that in nine known places they interconnect. In those interconnection points, untreated sewage from the sanitary system has at times found its way into the storm sewer system during heavy rains, and then ultimately into our streams and rivers. In addition, we've seen repeated instances where our sanitary sewer system backed up and overflowed into our streets and roads during periods of heavy rain. As a result, raw sewage was transported from our streets and roads into the storm sewer system, and ultimately that raw sewage was released from the storm sewer system into our streams without having been treated. Those releases constituted violations of the Clean Water Act, as well as creating obvious health problems for our community. No one wants to permit that situation to continue. These violations ultimately led the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet filing a lawsuit against Urban County Government in November 2006 to compel Urban County Government to stop polluting our streams and to force LFUCG to pay penalties as a result of the violations which occurred. It was regrettable that our sewer systems had deteriorated to that point, but there was really never any reason to deny the problems alleged by the EPA and the state. Simply put, in years past, our local government was not a good environmental citizen. Since taking office on January 1, 2007, we have never attempted to contest the fact that Urban County Government repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act. Instead, we have been working closely with the EPA and state environmental officials in an effort to clearly identify the problems in our sewer systems and to agree on those steps that we need to take to fix those problems in the most cost-effective manner possible. Tonight, I am pleased to report that we have reached an agreement with the EPA and the state, which the Urban County Council approved this afternoon. That agreement, called a consent decree, will have a significant impact on all of us who live in Lexington. Altogether, the consent decree and the exhibits attached to it consist of more than 1,900 pages, and it is a highly complex and technical document. For those of you who wish to review it, you can find it at our website, lfucg.com. However, I want to provide a short overview so that you will have some idea about how it will impact you. First, we must acknowledge that your Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government has failed to comply with the Clean Water Act. While I have no reason to believe anyone set out to intentionally harm the environment, many decisions have been made over the years which have resulted in our having sewer systems which simply had not adequately protected our streams and rivers. That failure resulted in multiple violations of the Clean Water Act, and in recognition of those violations, the EPA has assessed, and we have agreed to pay, a fine of $425,000. The federal fine would have been much higher, and we would have also been required to pay a state fine, but for the fact that we agreed to take various additional voluntary projects to improve our environment. I will address those projects in just a few minutes. Next, the Consent Decree identifies a number of steps which we must take to improve our storm sewer system. We propose a significant plan to manage our stormwater more effectively, and the EPA and the state have agreed that this plan is appropriate. That plan is called a Stormwater Quality Management Program, and you will undoubtedly hear it called the SWMP. The SWMP and its appendices alone consist of approximately 1,800 pages, and it will materially impact the way some companies do business and the way many homeowners contain stormwater on their property. The SWMP sets forth a variety of measurable goals which will be used to monitor how effectively we reduce pollution levels in our stormwater. If we fail to implement the identified performance standards, Lexington will be subjected to penalties and fines in the future. In addition, the Consent Decree requires that Lexington impose penalties for any illicit discharges into our storm sewers and create stormwater management programs for our industries and for construction sites, both during and after construction. The Consent Decree obligates Lexington to budget funds each year in an amount necessary to implement all aspects of the SWMP, and specifically, the Consent Decree requires Lexington to establish a stormwater management fee to pay for the stormwater management practices outlined in the SWMP. The fee must be imposed in two years. This fee will, in large measure, be based on the amount of impervious or solid surfaces owned by each property owner in Fayette County. In essence, if you own a driveway, sidewalk, patio, rooftop, or parking lot, you are preventing rainwater from being absorbed by the soil, and you are forcing that rainwater into our storm sewer system. Thus, as a general proposition, the more impervious surfaces that you own, the greater your stormwater management fee will be, although there may be a standard fee imposed for typical homeowners. We are presently evaluating each piece of real estate in Fayette County to determine the extent to which there are impervious surfaces on each parcel of real estate. Once that information is available, we can determine how best to allocate the responsibility for the stormwater management fee, but that evaluation will not be complete until the second half of this year. At that time, we will work with the Council to implement the fee in a fashion consistent with the terms of the Consent Decree. In addition to the compliance obligations relating to the storm sewer system, we must also take a variety of steps to ensure that our sanitary sewers comply with the Clean Water Act. Our sanitary sewer compliance obligations are much clearer at the present than our storm sewer obligations, primarily because our violations are more obvious. Consequently, a substantial portion of the Consent Decree is devoted to our sanitary sewer compliance obligations, and while time does not permit me to describe each aspect of those obligations, I want to at least provide an overview of some of the major obligations. For instance, we know now that we must eliminate the nine known interconnections between our sanitary and storm sewer systems. Four of those interconnections are already being eliminated, and the work on those four interconnections must be completed within 30 days after this Consent Decree is submitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. In addition, we have had repeated problems with numerous pump stations, and the EPA has set forth a four-year schedule by which several of the worst problems must be fixed. The work to fix these known problems must begin immediately, and the estimated cost of repairing these known problems is about $135 million. The proposed sanitary sewer user fee increase is designed to address these known problems. To pay for these immediate repairs, we will sell bonds to raise the cash necessary to pay for the repair work. I regret that we will be unable to phase the increase in over time, but it is urgent that the work begin immediately, both to maintain our public health and safety, and to comply with the schedule set forth in the Consent Decree. Thus, we must pay for the work immediately, and for those reasons, the increase in the sanitary sewer user fee must be fully implemented this year and next. The Urban County Council has been considering the fee increase since early January, and it is scheduled to vote on that increase at its meeting on Thursday evening. I strongly support this increase as an unfortunate but absolutely necessary step toward improving the quality of our local environment. However, there are numerous other problems in our sanitary sewer system which we do not fully understand at the present. Consequently, the EPA has required and we have agreed that we must undertake a comprehensive assessment of our sanitary sewer system to identify other problems and develop a work plan to eliminate those problems. Our success in correcting these problems will be monitored by the reduction of overflows at manholes and pump stations in accordance with standards set forth in the Consent Decree. We will also be obligated to thoroughly investigate problems identified by the monitoring. We also know that portions of our sanitary sewer system have inadequate capacity and inadequate equipment to enable the system to work effectively. Lexington will be required to assess our capacity and our equipment, and we must advise EPA how we will make the required improvements necessary for our system to operate in compliance with the law. In fact, we must establish a capacity assurance program to ensure adequate capacity exists before new connections are made to the system. As I mentioned earlier, our fines would have been much greater had we not voluntarily agreed to undertake an assortment of projects which improve the quality of our local environment. The projects are described in the Consent Decree as Supplemental Environmental Projects or SEPs. SEPs help to reduce the fines imposed by both federal and state environmental agencies. In regard to the federal fines, we have agreed to undertake two projects in exchange for the EPA substantially reducing our fines to $425,000. We believe these projects are all projects which materially benefit our local environment for many years to come, and we believe that these projects are ones which should be undertaken even if the enforcement action had never been filed by the EPA. The first project is for the stream and habitat restoration and creation of a greenway in and around Cane Run in Cold Stream Park. We have committed to spend at least $1 million on this project, which will result in the erosion and runoff into Cane Run benefiting Fayette and Scott counties. We have also committed to spend at least $230,000 for green infrastructure projects, which will reduce stormwater runoff. The specific projects will include natural and vegetative methods of capturing and reusing stormwater, such as rooftop gardens, as well as the expanded use of pervious surfaces. In regard to the state fines, we have agreed to undertake two projects, closing the Blue Sky Parkway sewer treatment plant and bringing its flow into the Lexington sanitary sewer system, and a flooding assessment, including a minimum commitment of at least $30 million towards remedying flooding projects identified in the assessment. The Blue Sky plant, a privately owned facility for many years, has a long history of environmental violations. A few years ago, Lexington agreed to operate this facility for the state in an effort to make it more environmentally compliant. Despite much work, the facility continues to regularly discharge wastewater in violation of state and federal laws. By bringing the wastewater from this facility into the West Hickman treatment plant, we will be able to alleviate one of Fayette County's most persistent water pollution problems. As we are all aware, Lexington has experienced an assortment of flooding problems for years. These flooding problems have created public safety concerns and public inconveniences, such as flooded basements and roadways. While no flood systems can be designed to address all of the problems created by significant storms, we can implement flooding projects which can lessen and, in some circumstances, eliminate these problems. Under the terms of the Consent Decree, we are committing to assessing our flooding problems and to spending at least $30 million on flooding projects identified in the study. In exchange for our voluntarily undertaking the changes at Blue Sky and our addressing flooding issues, our state funds were totally eliminated in recognition of our effort to address these long-term problems. Our obligations under the Consent Decree will continue for several years to come. The Consent Decree requires us to complete all of our sanitary sewer evaluations within four years. In addition, all improvements to our sewer system must be completed within 11 to 13 years. This schedule will necessitate our continued efforts throughout the next several years, but we believe that we can fulfill all of the construction obligations within the time set forth in the Consent Decree. As you may know, the Council and our Administration created the Department of Environmental Quality last summer, and that Department will have primary responsibility for implementing the Consent Decree in a timely manner. Environmental Quality Commissioner Cheryl Taylor is a mechanical engineer who, immediately prior to joining Urban County Government last December, served as the Environmental Protection Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. She is extraordinarily well prepared to undertake this responsibility. In addition, she will receive substantial assistance from the Director of our Division of Water and Air Quality, Charlie Martin. Charlie is a career employee of LFUCG and a civil engineer. Between Commissioner Taylor and Director Martin, I am confident that the implementation will go well. Rest assured that these two individuals will not be alone. First, they will have my full support. As I stated last year in the State of the Merge Government Address, the environment will be the highest priority of my Administration, and the implementation of the Consent Decree is the most significant environmental issue we face. I will not lose that focus. Moreover, there are many others in LFUCG who are ready, willing, and able to lend support – financial experts, lawyers, engineers, communications experts, and others. When this project is completed, I am confident that the citizens of Lexington will be proud of the quality work which has been performed under the leadership of Commissioner Taylor and Director Martin. So where do we go from here? Following today's action by the Council, we expect that the EPA and environmental officials will sign the document in the next few weeks. Once they have signed, the document will be tendered to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. For a period of 30 days thereafter, the public will have the opportunity to review the Consent Decree and to make comments about it to the EPA. Following that public comment, the EPA will have the opportunity to address issues raised by the public. Both the public's and the EPA's comments will then be considered by the Court. If the Court finds the terms of the Consent Decree to be satisfactory, it will be entered. If the Court believes on the basis of the comments that some change in the Consent Decree would be in order, the Court may direct the parties to renegotiate one or more aspects of the Consent Decree. In the meantime, we will be proceeding on Thursday, February 21st, to consider the increase in the sanitary sewer fee, and if that fee is approved, we will take the steps necessary to initiate repair work as soon as possible. No one likes the prospect of a higher fee, but we must all face the reality that we must pay for the significant changes that we are being required to make. To ignore that fact is simply not responsible. I am convinced the proposed fee is the best means to provide the funding necessary to improve our environment because the more you use the system, the more you pay, and the less you use the system, the less you pay. I believe that we need to invest in our community in order to protect our streams and rivers for future generations, and I hope you agree. If so, I encourage you to contact your council member and let him or her know how you feel. My goal in the last few minutes has been to provide you with a better understanding of the proposed Consent Decree and the steps we must take to implement it. I encourage you to review the contents of the Consent Decree at lfucg.com and let us know via email if you have any questions about its contents. In addition, printed copies of the Consent Decree are being made available to each of our public libraries, and they should be available for public inspection no later than tomorrow. Today is a significant and, I believe, an extraordinarily positive day in Lexington's environmental history. Years from now, we will be able to say that February 19, 2008 was the day on which we all began to be better stewards of our environment for the benefit of our children and for future generations of Lexingtonians. Thank you for joining me on this historic day, and have a good evening.