Waste water for lawns
Question: I heard that Kentucky American Water Co. offers a program to people who don’t mind using untreated water for soaking their yards and gardens. I also hear that a special pipeline has to be routed to a person’s property to take part in this program, but that the cost of the pipeline is expensive. Is there really such a service in Lexington?
Answer: According to Brian Wright, External Affairs Manager Kentucky American Water “that would be impossible as water is immediately treated as it comes from the river. A person would need a straight pipe directly to the Kentucky River to do this or their own source of well water.”
I also spoke with Cassie Felty, Administrative Officer, Division of Water and Air Quality
Department of Environmental Quality, LFUCG. This is what she says about using waste water to water lawns:“During times of drought and water use restrictions, Lexington does allow for the use of wastewater treatment plant effluent for limited purposes. Approval from the State is necessary for LFUCG to provide this service. The Kentucky Cabinet for Environmental and Public Protection establishes the limitations for use of the effluent, which includes:
The water cannot be consumed by humans or animals. It also cannot be used to water vegetable gardens, in swimming pools, fountains, for bathing or to wash a vehicle.
It may be used for dust control and other construction-related activities; general outside cleaning; watering trees, shrubs, the lawn and other decorative plantings; or watering golf course tees and greens.
The city is not pursuing a program that would allow this water to be piped to homes.”
For more information call LexCall at 425-2255 or check the Web site:
http://www.lfucg.com
Linda Niemi
Filed under: Uncategorized
My mother was a public school librarian. I earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Kentucky. The Herald-Leader hired me as a news assistant 25 years ago; soon after, I moved to the news research department, where I’ve been ever since. We used to clip newspapers. Now, almost all of our research is online. We've come a long way.
The person that inquired about this may have their types of water confused. Some cities allow customers to get treated wastewater to use for watering. Kentucky -American has nothing to do with that. LFUCG handles sewer treatment.
Or maybe they have heard of people that use 2 water meters. The second meter is for pools, outdoor spigots and irrigation systems. That way they don’t pay the sewage treatment fee on the second meter since the water doesn’t go into the sanitary system.