Waterways running throughout Fayette County are monitored for any pollutants. It’s part of the MS4 program, which stands for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. The program manager is Lindsie Nicholas, who updated a Lexington City Council committee earlier this month. Nicholas said state permitting is narrative-based on things like trainings, inspections, and enforcement. She said it’s not numerical-based.
“You know at a point source you can say this is the outfall, this is where it came from. This is our wastewater treatment plant or this is the industry where it’s coming from. But non-point sources, it’s coming from 322,000 people doing different things, so it’s a little harder to have numeric standards with a permit like this,” said Nicholas.
The program is intended to maintain and improve the quality of the state’s waterways by reducing the number of pollutants that stormwater picks up and carries into streams. Nicholas said E.coli levels, for instance, can come from various sources.
“Is it bird? Is it dog? Is it horse? Is it human? If we dive into that deep of an analysis, if we’re getting high readings, we can do that. And sometimes it’s all of them. You know, we’re getting hits on all of that.”
Nicholas said the city of Lexington is in compliance with its stormwater quality management plan. She noted that includes 186 measurable goals about implementing the MS4 program. In addition to monitoring and reporting, there are also pollution prevention and public engagement areas.
