The deputy director of water quality in Lexington says the city is in a ‘good place’ as it relates to stormwater control. Greg Lubeck updated a Lexington City Council committee last week. Lubeck said the city met federal consent decree requirements in 2021. He said now the focus is on a variety of locally requested projects. Lubeck noted timelines can be challenging.
“Easements are where we always get hung up. It could take six months to a year to get all the easements we need for a project. So, trying to say I’m going to do three projects next year. I can’t really make that promise. It’s keeping things moving,” said Lubeck.
Lubeck said there is currently a good balance between large and small stormwater improvement projects. The water quality official admitted some rains are simply too big and too quick for any stormwater draining system to handle. Lubeck added the objective is always to keep things moving forward.
“We do these big projects, but like I said, our bigger focus is now becoming on fixing the things that are broken back in neighborhoods and all that kind of stuff. It just creates more nuisance kind of problems. Street doesn’t drain,” said Lubeck.
The city of Lexington remains under a federal mandate on sanitary sewer improvements. The urban county government has been tackling these issues for over a decade.