# Stormwater Stakeholder Advisory Committee - September 5, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Committee · September 5, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6565 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6565?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-09-05 - **Body**: Committee - **Last revised**: February 28, 2026 - **Length**: 8,048 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. 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 Stormwater Stakeholder Advisory Committee met on September 5, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. in the Phoenix Building – 3rd Floor Conference Room, with Amy Sohner presiding. The meeting covered 8 agenda items in total, including 2 items that were brought to a vote and approved: the minutes from the March 3, 2025 meeting and the committee's meeting dates for 2026. The committee also received 4 informational presentations covering an introduction to WaterwaysLex, Inc., the Fayette County Conservation District's Backyard Conservation Program, an introduction and overview of the Royal Springs Aquifer, and a proposed Manual Updates Workgroup overview. Additionally, the meeting included discussion of potential topics for the next meeting, an announcements segment, and 3 public comments were heard during the session. ## Attendance The following 49 members were present at the September 5, 2025 Committee meeting: Jason Ainslie, Doug Burton, Jennifer Carey, Ken Cooke, Steve Garland, Jim Griggs, Amy Sohner, Russ Turpin, Traci Wade, Jerry Weisenfluh, Denice Bullock, Chris Chaney, Sarah Donaldson, Brooke Gray, Gabe Hensley, Becky Irwin, Chase Jones, Greg Lubeck, Craig Morgan, Jennifer Myatt, Mark Sanders, Dave Sevigny, Abby Terry, Richard Walker, Bailee Young, Ashfaq Ahmad, Chase Azevedo, Sara Bell, Eileen Burk, Jacob Crouch, Jerry Davis, Andrea Drayer, Pace Cook Emmons, Adam Garner, Don Hill, Ben Krebs, Nathan Krebs, Kevin Lewis, Tom Lowe, Doug McClaren, Richard McClure, Rick Mummery, John Pike, Heather Silvanik, Rebecca Stay, Brian Stephens, Audrey Suit, Steve Vogel, and Sarah Ward. No members were recorded as absent or late. ## Votes and Decisions Two motions were brought before the committee during the September 5, 2025 meeting, both of which passed unanimously. - **Approval of March 3, 2025 Minutes** [timestamp: 0:01:03]: A motion to approve the minutes from the March 3, 2025 meeting was made by Ken Cooke and seconded by Russ Turpin. The motion passed unanimously. No roll call vote was recorded. - **Approval of Meeting Dates for 2026** [timestamp: 0:59:30]: A motion to approve the committee's meeting dates for 2026 was made by Jennifer Carey and seconded by Dave Sevigny. The motion passed unanimously. No roll call vote was recorded. ## Public Comment Three members of the public addressed the committee during the public comment period. **Doug McClaren** asked about the timeline for the WaterwaysLex project to move forward. No specific response or timeline details are recorded in the meeting materials. **Jerry Weisenfluh** spoke about the Backyard National Park concept, referencing the work of Doug Tallamy. He suggested that the committee consider encouraging grant applicants to list their projects on the Backyard National Park registry, framing it as a way to connect local conservation efforts to a broader national framework. **Eileen Burk** raised concerns about the Royal Spring Aquifer, specifically asking about protections related to phosphorus and expressing concern about upcoming regulations that may affect the aquifer. No transcript timestamps are available for the public comment portion of this meeting. ## Approval of 03/03/2025 Minutes [timestamp: 01:03] The Committee reviewed the minutes from its March 3, 2025 meeting. Amy Sohner, Ken Cooke, and Russ Turpin were among the key speakers during this portion of the meeting. No additions or corrections were proposed, and no concerns were raised regarding the accuracy or completeness of the prior meeting's record. The minutes were approved as presented. ## Introduction to WaterwaysLex, Inc. [timestamp: 02:17] **John Pike** presented an introduction to **WaterwaysLex, Inc.**, a newly formed volunteer-based organization focused on the watersheds of Fayette County. Pike outlined the organization's mission and provided an overview of its upcoming projects. This agenda item was informational in nature, serving to acquaint the Committee with the new organization and its work in the community. No vote or formal action was taken as a result of the presentation. ## Fayette County Conservation District's Backyard Conservation Program [timestamp: 11:26] Heather Silvanik presented to the Committee on the Fayette County Conservation District's Backyard Conservation Program. The presentation covered the program's history, its impact to date, and plans for its future direction. This agenda item was informational in nature, and no vote or formal action was taken as a result of the presentation. *Note: Additional details regarding specific program statistics, initiatives discussed, concerns raised, or future plans were not available in the source data for this meeting item.* ## Royal Springs Aquifer Introduction and Overview [timestamp: 31:44] Ben Krebs and Chase Azevedo presented an introduction and overview of the Royal Springs Wellhead Protection Program, covering its significance for water quality protection. The presentation was informational in nature, providing the Committee with foundational context on the Royal Springs Aquifer and the wellhead protection efforts associated with it. No vote or formal action was taken as a result of this agenda item. *Note: Detailed discussion points, specific data, and any questions or concerns raised during this presentation are not available in the source materials for this summary.* ## Proposed Manual Updates Workgroup Overview [timestamp: 57:59] Bailee Young provided the Committee with an overview of the Manual Updates Workgroup, offering an informational presentation on the group's focus areas and ongoing work. The overview covered topics under consideration by the workgroup, including **wetlands** and **green infrastructure**. No vote or formal action was taken on this item, as it was presented for informational purposes only. *Note: The available structured data for this agenda item is limited. A more detailed summary — including specific proposals, concerns raised by Committee members, and the full scope of workgroup discussions — would require additional source materials from the meeting transcript or supporting documents.* ## Approval of Meeting Dates for 2026 [timestamp: 59:30] The committee took up Agenda Item 6, the approval of meeting dates for the 2026 calendar year. Jennifer Carey and Dave Sevigny were the key speakers during this portion of the meeting. The committee discussed the proposed schedule of meeting dates for 2026 before moving to a decision. The item was approved. *Note: Detailed discussion points, specific dates proposed, and any concerns raised during this agenda item are not available in the source materials beyond what is summarized above.* ## Potential Topics for Next Meeting [timestamp: 1:00:00] Under this agenda item, Committee members discussed potential topics to be taken up at a future meeting. - **Ken Cooke** suggested that the Committee consider scheduling a presentation on the implementation of the Green Infrastructure Plan. No additional topics were proposed, and the item was informational in nature. No formal vote or decision was taken. ## Announcements [timestamp: 1:01:00] Bailee Young presented announcements regarding upcoming events and meetings. The announcements included information about the Kentucky River Watershed Walk and Stormwater Awareness Week. This agenda item was informational in nature, with no action required from the committee. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of 03/03/2025 Minutes - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of Meeting Dates for 2026 --- ## Full transcript Friday. My name is Amy. I am the chair of the Stormwater Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which means I just do whatever Bailey tells me to do, which I'm happy to do. We are here for the September meeting of the Stormwater Stakeholder Advisory Committee, and the first item on our agenda is to go over our minutes from last time. It was March. It was a while ago that I've seen all of you. So as a reminder, if you have a comment, please use your microphone. Press the little button in front of it so that we can get that properly recorded, and also say your name, especially if you're making a motion to approve or second the minutes. So would anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes? Ken? I move to approve the minutes. We will keep the minutes as a PowerPoint presentation. Okay. Any second? Russ? Oh. Thank you. Any discussion on the minutes? Any changes? Okay. All in favor? All right. Any opposed? Fantastic. That's the easiest part. All right. Next, I would like to introduce John Pike. I'm really excited to hear about Waterways Lex, so welcome, John. Thank you. I've got a PowerPoint. I'm not sure how to get to it. Bailey might be able to help me there. So Bailey and the other members of Stormwater Stakeholder Council have given me the opportunity today to introduce you all to Waterways Lex. Just to make sure I know to move forward. Okay. Yeah. So Waterways Lex is a new volunteer watershed advocacy group for all the watersheds in Fayette County. I'm a member of Hickman Creek Conservancy. One of our other officers is a member of Friends of Wolf Run, and they do a lot of great work. We do lots of stream walks, lots of educational components, but we are centered in... Well, we, Hickman Creek Conservancy, is centered in West Hickman and East Hickman. There's also not a lot of collaboration between the existing groups. Friends of Wolf Run and Hickman Creek Conservancy talk maybe once a month about. And Neighbors United for South Elkhorn Creek, we know they're there, but we don't typically talk to them very often as well. And then you'll also notice with only three groups, more than half of the watersheds are not accounted for. So the president of Hickman Creek Conservancy identified these issues and thought, what can we do to improve the situation? How can we bond together and create a stronger force that is greater than the sum of our parts? So he thought we should have a meeting between the existing three watershed groups. And the president, that's Kelly Taylor, the president of Hickman Creek Conservancy. So I pitched Kelly's idea to Ken to have a meeting to get together, and he very wonderfully turned that into much more than just a meeting. He turned that into the Bluegrass Watershed Summit, which was held April 5th of 2025. This was a really great event. I know some of the people in this room were there and have probably heard about it because it was talked about, or at least invited people from this group to that summit. And I thought it was a really great event. We had about 70 professionals show up. There was lots of good network, professional network development, lots of good sharing of technology and methodology between watershed professionals, and also to try and instigate and build watershed stewardship. So at that meeting, we had a keynote speaker, we had three technical speakers, and then at the end we had a watershed BMP bingo activity for about an hour and a half where all the attendees were encouraged and motivated to create their own BMP project in their local interest, whatever local park or neighborhood was interested to them. And they pitched it to the engineers and scientists in the room, and they were given approval, if it was to the approvers, a good project that could be put in the ground. And hopefully, during the recent round of water quality incentive grants, maybe one or two of those projects that were brainstormed at the summit got turned into a real project that got submitted for an incentive grant. And this was also, Ken did a really great job to get funding from the Kentucky River Authority. So there were a lot of groups that got involved in that, Hickman Creek Conservancy, River Authority. It was held at BCTC. Kentucky Water Resource Institute spoke as well. So we had a lot of buy-in. I think everyone who went to that conference really had a good time, and we wanted to move that forward, and we wanted to create a more official collaboration, official group between all these parties that were merging together and wanting to speak in the same voice. And so that turned into Waterways Lex. So, the mission statement of Waterways Lex is to restore and maintain the biological, chemical, and hydrologic integrity of Central Kentucky waterways. So, in the ways that Hickman Creek Conservancy and Friends of Wolf Run are kind of limited to their watershed, Waterways Lex is meant to be that same thing, but every local watershed, anywhere where there is excitement or a need or a desire to have volunteer activities, Waterways Lex is looking to be involved. So, our officers, and four out of five of them, Kelly couldn't make it today. He had to bring his granddaughter to preschool. But a lot of the officers here today, I am the president, Kelly is the vice president, the treasurer is Heather Slavetich, and sorry if I mispronounced the second half there. The secretary is Pace Evans there, and the past president, although we've only existed for a couple months, the past president is Ken Cook. So, our very first order of business was to put together an action plan and to try and get some funding together. We knew that we wanted to do this Blue Grass Watershed Summit again in 2026, so we were very fortunate. We've been recommended for a stormwater incentive grant from the city. I'm not sure exactly which phase in the process we're in, but we really appreciated the help from Frank and Bailey to go through that process. So, we've been recommended to be awarded the water quality incentive grant to perform these four action items. So, action item one is to host that 2026 Blue Grass Watershed Summit. Planning for all this will get started once we get the notice to proceed on that incentive grant. Number two, performing education and outreach components. Participate at any local events, any festivals, any neighborhood meetings. Number three, host stream restoration walks and creek cleanups, including evaluation and monitoring of three existing stream restoration projects. And then number four, form a Waterways Lex steering committee, which is meant to be kind of the membership of Waterways Lex. Anyone, including people who are not an officer who wants to be involved and make their voice heard in the group is encouraged to participate in that steering committee. So, my action items for you all. This is a new group. We're just getting started. We're trying to build our network of connections. If you want to get updates for the 2026 Watershed Summit, if you want to table or participate at the Watershed Summit, if you want to invite us to table at your event that's going on, if you want to suggest a specific project that you'd like us to monitor or a specific stream or watershed where you know there's an interest in your watershed or an interest at your park or stream for us to do an activity, or if you want to learn more about the steering committee and potentially participate in the steering committee, please contact me. My email's up there. I also have a few business cards I can hand out if you just want it on paper. Or you can contact Pace at pace.waterwayslex.gmail.com. So, again, I appreciate the opportunity to introduce ourselves and to speak to you all. If there's any questions, I can take them. Do you have a suggested time frame for the next one? It's somewhat based on when we get the notice to proceed. So, anticipating if that potentially comes by the end of this year, we would want to do it in the spring of 2026. But if the notice to proceed doesn't happen until the spring, we'll do it in the fall. So, our membership is essentially you all. We're looking for stormwater stakeholders who care about volunteer watershed adequacy and volunteering. So, we really appreciate that you all could hear us out, and we hope that there's some opportunities to collaborate in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much, John. I was at that first watershed meeting last spring, or this past spring, and the energy in the room was palpable. It was so fun to see all of the people and just the energy and then the activity at the end where people got to sort of have their dreams crushed by the judges, of which I was one, so that was fun. But we really talked about a lot of watershed ideas and how to make things work, and that really sparked a lot of innovation, I think. So, good job to the Waterways Lex, the pre-planning committee, or the pre-organization committee. Next, I'd like to introduce Heather Slavanyk with Fayette County Conservation District, and she's going to talk about your backyard conservation program. Fayette County Conservation District is such a force in Lexington, and I think has been, from my perspective, a little bit silent for a while, and in the last few years has really come up, at least in my perspective and with Bluegrass Greensource, and really being a force for good for water quality and conservation in general, especially for Lexington. So, Heather. Hello. My name is Heather Slavanyk, and I'm the director of the Fayette County Conservation District, and like Amy said, I'm going to be talking about the backyard conservation program. First, I want to kind of poll the room about your knowledge of conservation districts in the state of Kentucky. Before you read that, does anybody know what this picture depicts? Yeah. So, very good. So, conservation districts were developed in the 1930s by the federal government as a result of the Dust Bowl. In the 30s, and then in the state of Kentucky, there are 121 conservation districts. So, there's one in each county, but two in Logan County. From what I understand, maybe Doug can give some information, but that is because that Logan County, Kentucky is where conservation districts were founded. Yeah, and they just politically wanted to have two here in that county. Okay, I didn't know that. Very interesting. So, when it comes to conservation districts, here in Fayette County, we have a kind of unique opportunity to explore urban conservation. And so, traditionally and historically, the conservation district in Lexington has been a service to the rural community and to farmers. And so, here in Lexington, starting in 2019, I'll give a bit of history about that, but the conservation district developed local programs to be of more assistance to the entire county instead of just the rural community. But I want to kind of stress that the most crucial function of conservation districts is to kind of serve as this intermediary with other governments. So, we liaise programs from the federal government, from the state government, and then here in Lexington, we're fortunate enough to have a budget to operate our own programs that kind of go off of the same ideas and principles of the federal and state programs that we liaise in that they are designed to address resource concerns. So, backyard conservation. Who in here is familiar or has participated in the backyard conservation program? Awesome. So, it's a USDA nationally recognized service that conservation districts should provide, and our partners within the USDA is the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, and they recognize backyard conservation as a tool for conservation districts to have a presence in their community, and it has certainly helped us. I think I missed... In 2019 is whenever we first developed the backyard conservation program, and then it was just the pollinator habitat program, and we had 20 participants. And so, fast forward to 2023, we had over 350 participants. Is that right, Sarah? So, in 2023, for the first time ever in Fayette County Conservation District's history, we had more individual conservation projects inside the urban service area. So, this is our version of the backyard conservation program. We give a $200 reimbursement, which is 50% of overall expenses, and it's based on a reimbursement. So, receipts have to be submitted for eligible projects. Every application that we receive is, you know, gone over. We want to make sure that they are falling within some of the categories that we have listed here. We have about a dozen categories that are eligible, and several things that are not eligible. This is a bit of a breakdown of the eligible practices. As you can see, we offer food production, and that is also a USDA-recognized resource concern. We also offer food production, and that is also a USDA-recognized resource concern. Wildlife habitat is another one that is something that we try to use this program for. And then, I want to mention low-impact development as well. So, I broke down some of those categories as they relate to water quality to be more suitable for this group. Low-impact development projects, stream restoration, lawn diversification. So, the planting of native species for riparian buffer is included on that, and then soil amendments as well. So, I also want to talk a little bit about the administrative process of this, because the Conservation District is a staff of two people, and we are fully administrating this program that hundreds of people apply for within weeks of it coming open. So, the way that it works is we have two different sign-up periods now, one in the spring and one in the fall, and most people are approved within days of applying. And so, this year the program filled up within the first three days of opening. So, I'll just mention that I made the application available at midnight on the 1st of April, and by the time I woke up, 6 o'clock in the morning, over 50 people had applied. So, that tells me that people were refreshing their screens, trying to make sure that they got included in the funding around. So, that was really interesting to see this year. So, after that, we send an approval letter once we confirm that the project does address a resource concern. And then after that, applicants submit legible receipts and photos within the program parameters, and the board, the Fayette County Conservation District board and our staff approve the projects individually and reimburse them by check. So, sending hundreds of checks at the end of our fiscal year is really nice for us, but it works really well. And this year, we're really pushing our fall installment of the program, and we are prioritizing applications that have pledged to plant native trees and shrubs. So, if you are planning to apply or telling other people about applying, if you have it in your plans to plant native trees and shrubs, you will be given priority funding this year. And so, how this program looks since 2019, I did a bit of analysis of the numbers. So, what these mean is 82% of people who apply for this program complete their projects. So, about 18% of people who apply never respond to us, don't finish, they ghost us, basically. So, that's something we're working on, because administratively, it's a lot of work to approve these individual projects, and we want to see that number increase, but around 82% is pretty good. And so, thus far, the program has assisted over 1,000 individuals in the city of Lexington, and we've paid out around $188,000. And so, that has resulted in an economic investment of over $400,000. And then, I did a bit of analysis of the individual projects. So, many people apply, and they do more than one project. So, it's really interesting to make note of that and see where the trends are. I also wanted to give props to John Mata at Cosmic Asada. He is the graphic designer. All the images that you've seen in this presentation are from his graphic, and every year, the Conservation District has devoted around $1,000 of our budget to develop a new graphic for it. So, I think it's an interesting way to have outreach in the community, have a recognizable image to share, and I wanted to be sure to include that here. Another thing about the Backyard Conservation Program is there has been a movement in our state to adopt this program. So, 37 Conservation Districts in 2024 had a Backyard Conservation Program. That's around 30% of the overall Conservation Districts, which I think is lovely. And so, Fayette County Conservation District was the first Conservation District to have Backyard Conservation. So, I wanted to be sure to mention that. Also, the Conservation District has many other cost-share programs and grants, and so, I wanted to quickly talk about those. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions about any of these programs, and this is not every service that we offer. But, if you notice the programs that have an asterisk at the end of it, all of those programs require a farm registration with the Farm Service Agency in order to participate in them. So, we have several programs that don't require it and several that do, and that is a service that is also offered to urban residents, single-family housing, multifamily housing, and businesses, schools, churches, that kind of thing. And, here are some very nice pictures from 2025 projects that we had. And, there is my contact information. Does anybody have any questions? Sure. Hi, I'm Larry Weisenplan, and earlier this year, late last year, the biologist Doug Talen came to speak at Weisenplan, and he has this concept of, it's called Backyard National Park, where little projects sort of all kind of banded together to form large areas where conservation is being done. So, as you were talking, I was thinking it would be kind of cool to take these individual projects, get some funds to do something in the yard, and band them together into a single concept. So, I'm not sure I'm proposing that you do that on your own, but it would be kind of neat if you could encourage or even require your participants to basically register the project with this national park. To give a better sense of your project belonging to a larger whole. No, I think that's great, and I don't know if I touched on this, but one of the best parts of this program to me is the ownership that people can take within their individual space, and making decisions about their daily lives in the community, and the impact in their neighborhoods that they can make on an individual basis, and how that adds up to something larger. This is John Pike. Could you give an example of one project that you think was particularly successful? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that, because another beautiful part of this program that I've gotten to witness since its inception is applicants who apply year after year. So, there are some applicants who have applied every year since 2019, so I've been able to see people creating a sort of utopia in their own backyard through this program. And so, a lot of folks are investing a lot more than the $400 required to maximize the benefit. My favorite part of the project is rain gardens, and so that is something that we started out with small participation in, but now I think this year we had over 30 rain gardens, so that was really wonderful to see. I have a question regarding the expertise that the conservation district can bring to bear on soil quality. Is this not working? It is now. It is now. Okay. In terms of soil quality, can you expound on the expertise that you have available, either through NRCS or your own shop, in terms of soil scientists and projects that amend soil quality? I rely heavily on our partners for that. So, we have NRCS, we have the Division of Conservation, we have the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and I think I should probably mention our most utilized in the urban services area program is the soil sample voucher program. And so, as far as individual impact goes, we have been able to witness an uptick of people who are interested in soil quality and the state of their soil before they decide to grow in that space, and we have those numbers going back to 2019 and all of the results. So, we haven't done much analysis of that, but we have the data, and it's something that I hope to do in the future. I'd like to follow up also about nutrient management. What are you guys doing in regards to nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonia type of uses? So, we have a cover crop program that allows a reimbursement, it's actually $35 an acre now, for registered farms to participate in getting some financial compensation. And so, it's not a reimbursement, it's actually an award payment per acre of cover crop planted. So, we do that, and we also participate in the Division of Conservation's management and implementation of those nutrient management plans. So, there is another program, the Kentucky State Cost Share Program, that does require farm registration, and many of the projects, especially when it comes to livestock management, require an actual nutrient management plan, and part of the cost share would fund the cost of developing one. Is there an opportunity for us to get together to talk about nutrient management in Fayette County coming up soon? That's true. On October 2nd at 1230 at the UK Extension office, there is an opportunity to do that. Paula Akers is the speaker, and she is the Gulf Hypoxia Program Manager. Are there any co-sponsors with Fayette County Conservation District? Are we going to get her some water for us? I got it. Thank you. So, it's going to be an event that is RSVP only, so look for that. If you're interested, I'll send it to Bailey. Hi, this is Russ. I've got a question about, you had a slide with some figures of funding and percentages, and I was wondering if you could go into more information about that, like if some of those numbers, how much of that might be the county funded versus federal? If there's a distinction between them. It's 100% millage tax funded. So, the numbers up there, is that an annual, or has that been a cumulative total? That's from 2019 to present. And we are about to come out with our annual report that will have fiscal year 2025 figures available as well. For the soil sample data, do you have that public facing? So, if two neighbors got soil samples done, they can't see each other's to know, oh, we may not need to do this? No, it's not public information. And so, there's personally identifiable information on those, like address, would redact that information if somebody had an open records request for it. Thanks, I'm a council member. And I know we changed the millage on that last year. 2023. It has been wonderful. That essentially doubled our operating budget. And so, we were allowed to, what seemed probably minimal to city council was a great deal to us. And so, we were able to have a secondary full time staff person, Sarah Ward, she's sitting here. And she is who scours over these individual applications every year. Great, we got a lot of flack on it, but I'm glad that it's working. Well, we have a presentation coming up on September 16th to city council to let you know just what we're doing with that additional budget. Thank you. Thank you very much, Heather. I received two of the conservation grants in 2020 and 2021. And my cut plant is this high, and my milkweed is all over the place, and I need to probably rein some of that in a little bit. So, if anybody gets a conservation district grant and wants to purchase a rain barrel, Bluegrass Greensource sells them for $80 any time you want them. Next, we have Royal Springs Aquifer Introduction and Overview by Chase Esvarado. As an educator, the Royal Springs Aquifer is a fascinating thing to talk about with students, even if you don't live in Fayette County or Scott County. Mr. Chase sent me up here. So, I'll do a little introduction. My name is Ben Krebs. I'm an engineer for the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission currently. I started there in 2004 and have been on the Royal Springs Wheelhead Committee since that time. On and off, I did work for Lexington Division of Water Quality for about seven years. I see a lot of familiar faces here from the original SSAC meetings, and they were a lot smaller back then, it seems like. So, I guess I'll introduce, I think most people know Chase as well. He is now the general manager of the Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service, and I guess chairman of our Royal Springs Protection Committee. So, I'm curious, first of all, how many are familiar with Royal Springs? Know the importance? It's a good portion of the room, so that's good. This is, we appreciate you having us down here to talk about the importance, but this is where runoff, stormwater runoff, becomes drinking water. It has been my drinking water for the last 25 years. It is the importance of what we're doing to protect this, the program, the regulatory requirements. Next slide, please. So, we want to talk a little bit about the history, what the Wellhead Protection Program, our regulatory requirements, how it was set up, what the committee does now, who's involved in that, how we review projects and oversee our input on what is coming into the actual Wellhead. What we're concerned with, how you coordinate, if you're a developer, how we work with LFUCG and how we all work together to review these projects, and then I guess some of the future things we're interested in as a committee. Royal Spring has been a major water source in Kentucky for over, well, I'd say 250 years as far as settlement, as far as American settlement. I'm sure it was utilized way longer than that. It's one of the largest natural springs in Kentucky. It, if you're not familiar, we'll have a map a little later on, but it basically sits underneath the Cane Run watershed. It is where most people, I think everybody here realizes that stormwater runoff is somebody's drinking water at some time somewhere. Our drinking water sits in the giant reservoir where we live and underneath pretty much the Cane Run watershed. There have been studies. Most of this was developed in the 80s and 90s, work by KGS, Jim Kearns, Randy Paylor, and others. We've mapped, there's dye tracing that's gone into this. It is vulnerable because what goes into Cane Run, which is, everything that goes into the groundwater can show up at our spring in a matter of hours to days, depending on what the conditions are in the reservoir at that time. We don't know exactly how big it is, how deep, what the conduits look like in there. There's been some scientific work to try to figure that out, but it's mostly a guess still at this time of what it is. I'll let Chase talk a little bit more about the treatment capacity, but there are over 16,000 customers, which I'm a customer and I see at least one or two other customers in this room. It is a regulatory program. It falls under 401KAR with the Division of Water. Developing the plan was a matter of five years with cooperation with LFUCG and Georgetown-Scott County government. It is under the Groundwater Protection Program with the Division of Water. The action plan was developed over about five years and was approved by both Fayette and Scott County. There's a memorandum of agreement that went into both government bodies that agreed on this plan and then it was approved by the Division of Water in 2003. It is a large document. It sets out what went into the background, how we're going to operate in the future. Here is the large overall map that shows how it goes into Georgetown. The outline and I don't know if this has got a pointer as well. Downtown Georgetown stretches all the way to downtown Lexington. The deep blue in the middle is over top of Cane Run Creek. There are swallowed holes and different places where the water just disappears straight down to the aquifer. Flows have been studied, how they correspond to what's coming out the spring, what the flow is in Cane Run. Friends of Cane Run got a grant years ago that did a lot of study, a lot of correspondence on that. Here's a little more detailed map of just in Fayette County. You can see the areas that it overlays. Some of the parts are actually parts to the east along Russell Cave Road are not even in the Cane Run ground watershed, but these areas drain to an underground cave that then feeds into the gross bed. You talking about this one or? Thank you, Ben. I had to have Ben come with me because while I've been involved with the committee the last six, seven years, as you just heard from Ben, his experience with this committee and his passion for what we do with wellhead protection, it's unmatched. It's only fair that he gets to come and share his wisdom as well. The importance, I'll just reiterate the importance of what we do. As he said, this is stormwater in one area, but it's our raw water source for our drinking water. We have a four million gallon a day water treatment plant that serves about 16,000 customers in Georgetown and Scott County. This is important work, and we try to work with the development community to make sure that we look at what projects are going into the wellhead protection area, and we work together to make sure that we're protecting this very sensitive area for obvious reasons. Currently, the committee is comprised of members that represent both communities. As you saw on the map, the protection area lies in Georgetown and Scott County, as well as Fayette County and down into downtown Lexington. Members from Georgetown, we have Adam Terry. He's our water treatment plant superintendent. We have Ben Krebs, as he introduced himself. He's the engineer for Georgetown-Scott County planning and zoning. Michael Hennigan, he is our director of emergency management in Georgetown-Scott County. Our Lexington members, they have shifted a little bit in the last few years for some retirements. Tom Martin helped us out for a number of years, but now Tracy Wade, planning director, Eve Miller, environmental planning senior, and recently Bailey's gotten involved. We appreciate Bailey for getting us on the agenda today. This is your committee. As we have some other topics that come up, we'll have other members or other participants in the discussions and the review process. I know anything related to division of water quality with sanitary sewer or stormwater, Gabe Hensley, he sits in on some of the meetings. From Georgetown's perspective, the city engineer, Eddie Hightower, he helps us out as well. A little bit about what we do. Our committee, we review all new projects that would be located in the wellhead protection area. Any new project that's located here, they submit their project documents to the respective planning and zoning unit, being Lexington or Georgetown-Scott County. Then those get forwarded to me at the utility or they're submitted directly to me. Then the committee will meet with project representatives. We used to do this in person following COVID. When we were meeting virtually, we've just stayed with meeting virtually. It seems like project representatives, they appreciate that because sometimes they're not local and it prevents them making the trip all the way to Georgetown to sit down and meet with us. We still do that virtually. Anybody can get a copy of the meeting link so they can join us occasionally. Not that often we have members of the public that just sit in and watch. As a group, we make recommendations to the respective planning agency related to anything on the new project that would involve potential impact to this environmentally sensitive area and then potential recommendations for how to mitigate those threats. Recommendations is the key word there. That's what, as part of our program with wellhead protection that we're mandated to do from Division of Water, we make recommendations. That's all we're empowered to do. Those recommendations are then submitted back to the planning agency. As I understand, they're included in the staff report and then that review and approvals process. In our review, we take a look at anything that may be helpful to understanding the impact or no impact to the wellhead protection area. We'll look at development plans, construction documents. We'll look at groundwater protection plans, environmental assessments, you name it. We'll take a look at it and see if it helps our discussion. Any questions there? Our primary areas of concern that we look for, first and foremost, underground fuel storage tanks. We are very consistent in our recommendations that we do not like seeing any gas stations to be located in this area. We understand that that's a large area. We understand that folks that live there, they don't need to be traveling that far away in order to get to a gas station, but we have learned from harsh experience that underground fuel storage tanks can cause the most detrimental impacts to the wellhead protection area and our drinking water supply. We are consistent. We always recommend against location of a fuel station as part of a new development in the wellhead protection area. We look at any future land use that may involve chemical storage, chemical handling, and another one, while pervious pavement and while underground detention are excellent tools for stormwater management, we know that we recognize it. We don't like to see that in the wellhead protection area. Pervious pavement and underground detention give us a direct avenue for contamination into the wellhead protection area, into the aquifer, and specifically with underground detention, while we recognize that it is a great tool, we have learned from experience again that contamination going into the aquifer can go unnoticed, unreported, and unmitigated for a number of months with underground detention, if not longer. We're not saying that we're against that. We just recognize that it is a potential threat to the wellhead protection area. Sanitary sewer overflows is another area that we can see impact and we have seen impact, thankfully. We have a good communication system, good working system with LFUCG's Division of Water Quality. I did see Gabe got in here, and Gabe always gives me a call if there's any issue, and I think LFUCG's Division of Water Quality has gotten very good at fixing any issues related to sanitary sewer overflows that are located within the aquifer recharge area. From a new project perspective, the wellhead protection area requirements, they are listed in section 1.5.13 of the LFUCG Stormwater Manual. Those requirements, they do include notification to the planning unit and then review by the wellhead protection committee. Our design recommendations, they're generally include, but they're not always limited to groundwater protection plans, on-site water quality units, treatment of stormwater runoff, whether it be on-site or even at a regional facility, a regional detention basin. We look at stormwater management plans, and then we also have worked with developers on spill containment areas for any chemical storage. I already mentioned we work well with water quality on sanitary sewer overflows, and again, our recommendations, they're not meant to be a hindrance. We've just unfortunately learned through our history sourcing raw water from Royal Spring that these are where we have seen projects or seen potential impacts become real impacts, and we've had to shut down our water plant, and we have to wait for that contamination to pass over days, weeks, or months. During that time period, we're buying all of our water from an alternate source, being Frankfort Plant Board or Kentucky American Water Company. Our recommendations, our work on these projects, it's not meant to be punitive against our development partners. The importance is we've got to protect that water supply. In the near future, we hope to develop as a committee better written specifications, what we want to see on different projects. Most of the time, these projects, there's not a lot of threats, but there are specific projects, specific land uses, things that could present a threat, so we need to develop written policy, written specifications that project representatives know that we're going to be looking for. I think the easiest way we can do that is a pre-submission checklist that can be filled out by the engineer before we even see the project. We are working on that. We also think that it is, we've seen some, due to the complexity of some of the projects that we've seen, we need to probably have access to and the ability to retain a groundwater protection specialist in the form of a consultant that can help us work with the project representatives that we make sure we're doing the best we can to protect the water quality, protect this very environmentally sensitive area. That's all we've got today. Happy to take your questions. Eileen Burke, Kentucky American Water. The Royal Spring Aquifer, have you had PFAS detections, and is that a concern for the upcoming drinking water regulations? Yes, we have, and we are working on, already received funding and working on our projects that will go to mitigate the, and bring us within compliance within the regulatory deadline that we're all working toward. Does your kind of jurisdiction include like state road projects or interstate, you know, any of those kind of road construction? I don't think I've seen any of those in my tenure. We have not, they, those projects do not generally go through the planning commissions of each body, so we, they are not, not that the interstate has been a threat multiple times to the water supply. When a fuel truck spills on the interstate, that's an immediate problem. The railroad has been a problem, but we don't have oversight over those. Could you comment on controls for permitted discharges like from Spindletop, Mobile Home Park, from Maplewood, Mobile Home Park, and what efforts are being done to control those inputs? That's a good project. Specifically to Spindletop, Ponderosa, also known as Georgetown Mobile Estates, currently known as Sawyer Point, we have over the past six years worked on a project to get those packaged treatment facilities offline, and now those communities are connected to our sewer system, so they no longer discharge to that tributary of Cane Run. But specifically, or just in a more general sense, I don't think that we've had a lot of, at least in my tenure, Ben, you can speak if, just if you're talking generally, if there's other areas that you're referring to beyond Spindletop and Ponderosa. No, I think you've named them properly in terms of those, they were traditionally an issue, so you've got them connected now to your sanitary sewer system, and then has that sanitary sewer line promoted development out 25 south, or do you have regulations that would limit that? So, how long do you have? That project was, I'll say, from an administrative standpoint. From an engineering and construction standpoint, it was a pump station, a collector sewer, and an interceptor sewer. But from an administrative standpoint, with some of the issues that you just mentioned, it was the most complex project that I've ever been a part of, and there's not even a close second. That putting public sewer infrastructure into that corridor that is very sensitive to the City of Georgetown and Scott County, it's known as the Greenbelt. It has long been held that the City of Georgetown wants to maintain a Greenbelt between the City of Georgetown and Fayette County. Fair enough. If we open that up by putting sewer infrastructure there, does that open that up to uncontrolled growth? So that goes against, as an engineer, what I want to do when I'm doing an expansion area, I want to size our infrastructure for ultimate build-out. So we do it once, and we do it right, and we can think about any future project we've got capacity for. We had to do things a little bit backward, and city officials, county officials all weighed in on exactly how large I was allowed to make that infrastructure so as we could control the growth in that area based on infrastructure size. Pardon me for dominating the questions, but I have one more regarding your objection to pervious pavement in the watershed. Do you have any of the science you use to make those decisions published, or are any of the examples or incidences available to us to look at? I think that recommendation just came from specific instances where we had contamination that we traced back to the avenue created by the pervious pavement. As far as specific science or documentation behind it, I don't know that there would be any. I can't give you an exact example, but I know a large pervious parking lot has pavers, and they hit an accidental, I think a 25-gallon spill at some point. A truck came on site and had an accident. This was in Scott County, and they had to, emergency management showed up, and they had to destroy their entire parking lot and keep digging until they could get that contained. Jim Griggs, I'm curious about the stockyard and the relationship you've got with them, if it's monitored, their surface operation, and if it's going well since they've opened out there. I know we worked with them considerably in the design. We reviewed multiple times when they originally come in. As a group, we do not do monitoring. I guess the assumption is LFUCG is doing some kind of monitoring on them. When they did come in, they directed all of their runoff to a holding pond toward Fayette County, I guess toward the south. That does have a discharge, but it was not a direct discharge into the aquifer. At first, they wanted to do a lot of infiltration areas, and we talked them out of it, talked them through that, so the large pond can act as a, they can actually utilize that water, do some minor treatment, reuse that water the way it was done. Is anybody else here familiar, has there been monitoring been done on that pond? I see that. Gabe Hensley, Water Quality Compliance and Monitoring. We have a program called the Industrial and High Risk Commercial Stormwater Program, part of our MS4 permit. They are on our inventory. They also are looked at by the state. I think they have an ag exemption out there, so they're not eligible for the actual KPDS discharge permit, but they do have a considerable amount of BMPs relative to what they had when they were located on Town Branch. We monitor those systems. We get an inspection out there on a regular basis. We're keeping an eye on it. I think some of the questions go toward compliance and monitoring, and it's important to know, and why we've tried to go through this specifically, is that our program that's mandated and approved by Division of Water, it is drafted as such that it gives us review authority and authority to make recommendations. We really don't have authority from a regulatory standpoint beyond that for compliance and monitoring. Thank you all. Alright, fantastic. Thank you all very, very much. I'm glad to know that that committee existed, but it makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate your work on that. Next, we are going to talk about the manual updates from the work group, the overview of what happened there, and I assume, Bailey, you're doing that. Is that true? Yes. We had the manual update work group last Friday, and we had a pretty good turnout. We had around 30 folks, and we had pretty lively discussion, and some of the hot-button items were wetlands, phased development plans, manufactured treatment device protocol, and also maintenance and educating property owners. There was also comments on hydrology data, fee-in-lieu versus credit-based programs and redevelopment standards. We're going to keep having some more conversations. Folks at the work group asked if we would meet with landscape architects and green infrastructure professionals and have another work group after that. We're going to do that, and then we'll report back to the group what they say. We have the suggested meeting dates for 2026. Someone reserved our room, and so we're doing it early this year. If I could have someone make a motion to approve those dates. Thank you. Do we have a second? Thank you. I'm going to open the floor to potential topics for the next meeting. Ken? I have one I submitted in writing. I don't remember what I wrote, but it's related to green infrastructure. I'm sorry, Ken Cook, principal, friend, representative. I would like to see us discuss green infrastructure implementation and our lessons learned from that, and I think in addition to your inspectors who actually go out and inspect these facilities, it would be nice to hear from members of the development community and their consultants who are actually implementing some of these. Sounds great. We have been kicking around the idea of doing a green infrastructure focus at the December workshop, so we may shift that idea for the December workshop for the construction developers, engineers, work group. You mean have the work group meeting be the SSAC meeting? No, sorry. Instead of doing that at SSAC, because we already have folks lined up in December, we may do it at the what's it called? What's the fancy name? Oh, I got you. Are there any other topic ideas? Cool. For announcements, we have a busy fall. Kentucky River Watershed Walk is tomorrow. Wolf Run Watershed Council meeting is September 22nd. Stormwater Awareness Week is also September 22nd through the 26th. Water Quality Fees Board meeting is October 9th. Tree Week, 10th through the 19th. Art by Nature, 17th. Tree Evangelist Training is the 18th. Household Hazardous Waste Collection is at 1631 Old Frankford Pike, I think from 830 to 3 on October 18th. Gobble Grease Toss is after Thanksgiving. Our next SSAC meeting is December 5th. December 19th is what we were just talking about, the workshop with Engineering Development Construction Industry. We're already planning for the next annual water week in next March. You can view all the SSAC meetings now on the archived LexLive videos. If you want to go back and see past years, that is an option. And that's all. We're getting out early. Thank you all.