Celebrating Progress
Looking Ahead
See information about the Clean Water Act and its effects in Kentucky at the following Web sites:
CWA in Kentucky Home Page
History and Background
Successes (KPDES / Nonpoint Source / State Revolving Fund)
Trends
What We Are Doing
Challenges for the Future
Calendar of Events
National Water Monitoring Day
National Youth Watershed Summit
World Watershed Summit
Successes
State Revolving Fund
Money from the State Revolving Fund, authorized in Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987, has helped to fund many notable wastewater treatment facilities that have in turn helped contribute to cleaner water in Kentucky's rivers and streams. Examples of projects funded include:
Crestwood, an unsewered community - With an SRF loan of $6,517,146 and matching funds from a League of Cities loan, along with contributions from two land developers, the city has built a sewage collection system to provide service to residents of Crestwood and Park Lake. The new system, replacing faulty septic tanks and 13 inadequate package treatment plants, transports waste to the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District's Hite Creek Plant in eastern Jefferson County.
Madisonville - A new 6.0 MGD treatment system was constructed on Greasy Creek. This allowed the old plant on Flat Creek to be eliminated. It was originally to be funded by a bond issue with a projected interest rate of 4.8 percent. However, it was finally financed through the SRF at 2.6 percent. A difference in interest rates of this amount on a $15,554,000 project equals a savings of $4,396,000 in interest payments over 20 years.
Owensboro/Daviess County - The largest SRF loan, $26 million, was made to the Regional Water Resources Agency (RWRA) of Owensboro/Daviess County to expand and upgrade the 30-year-old Max N. Rhoads Wastewater Treatment Plant-West and to renovate the Locust Street/Dublin Lane pump station, rehab sewers on Highway 60 West and extend sewer lines outside city limits along U.S. 60 West, U.S. 60 East and into the Yellow Creek area. Package plants and septic systems in the area had created serious environmental concerns over the years. The loan to the RWRA made it possible to eliminate 18 small package plants at residential and commercial facilities.
More examples of regionalization and elimination of package plants:
Bullitt County - The newly formed Bullitt County Sanitation Board purchased three package plants in the Brooks Run Watershed that had bad compliance records.
East Fork Little Sandy River - 41 small dischargers have been eliminated.
Sanitation District #1 of Northern Kentucky - the Eastern Regional plant (Alexandria) is to be completed by Dec. 2004, after which discharge will go to the Ohio River and not to Brush Creek; 22 plants have been eliminated along Gunpowder Creek, and flow is going to the Dry Creek treatment plant.
Jefferson County - MSD owns and operates most package plants in Jefferson County and plans to incorporate the flow from these plants into the MSD treatment system. The Floyds Fork Regional plant is now on line.
Oldham County - the Oldham County Sanitation District has eliminated 10 small plants.
Differences in water quality as a result of construction and upgrades of wastewater treatment facilities: A comparison of data from before SRF loans were granted in 1990 to post-SRF construction in the July 1997-June 1998 period for 52 municipalities shows the following:
BOD5 - A measure of pollution in terms of biological loading of stream water requiring added oxygen. 67 percent of municipalities over the time period that received SRF loans improved their effluent discharge quality by reducing BOD5 concentration. For example, the biological loading to streams from the 53 municipalities that received SRF loans for improved treatment facilities was reduced from 6,340 pounds per day in 1991 to 5,781 pounds per day in 1998, reducing BOD pollution by 102 tons.
TSS - Total suspended solids, a measure of physical loading of streams with sediments discharged from these 53 municipalities was reduced from 8,529 pounds per day to 7,731 pounds per day, a reduction of 146 tons, although the flow increased 27 percent.
Ammonia - A nutrient that causes algae growth and deprives streams of sunlight and oxygen for fish. Total ammonia discharged to streams from these plants in 1991 was 2,414 pounds per day. It was reduced to 1,908 pounds per day in 1998, a decrease of 92 tons per year.
See more Clean Water Act success stories for Kentucky at the following Web sites:
KPDES successes
Nonpoint source successes
See more SRF information at EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund Web site.
