In April, over 12 inches of rain fell on parts of central Kentucky. That runoff, on 22 occasions, flooded the city’s pump stations for 24 hours or more. And the city says some of that raw sewage backed up into over 20 homes. Lexington is working on a permanent fix but it could take another decade. Urban County Councilmember Doug Martin says some homeowners can’t wait that long.
“In the next ten to 20 years it’s gonna take to do that, some of these folks can’t wait another 20 years to get the sewage out of their basements,” said Martin.
The council may agree to spend 100 thousand dollars on short term repairs to the sewage systems. Doug Martin says it could provide assistance for some ten homeowners. Division of Water Quality Director Charlie Martin says the money could buy special pumps which could be installed in affected homes…
“There are these things called ejector pumps to where your downstairs bathroom can be served by a pump that essentially collects it and shoots it out,” added Charlie Martin.
If the council appropriates funding for these modifications in the new budget plan, Martin says the next challenge will be determining who gets assistance first.
“The time frame would be probably really based predicated on how we go about determining the eligibility. You heard a lot of discussion about who would be eligible for that…whether income level or frequency of event or what other criteria might be used to determine that,” explained Martin.
Martin says, if all goes well, work on selected homes could get underway as early as this fall.