By Alan Lytle - Ali Ord
Lexington, KY – Coca Cola officials have broken ground today on a second rain garden and a water replenishing project that'll be located on the front lawn of their company headquarters along Leestown Road.
The project, a joint effort between the beverage company, EcoGro Environmental Consultants, and Ridgewater Construction, utilized funding from the LFUCG Stormwater Grant Incentive Program. Project spokeperson Eric DeWalt says the system will help the company use less water more wisely.
"This system is going to capture the runoff from the rooftop in a tank of about 10,000 gallons, and then that water's going to be filtered, treated, and used for non-potable purposes such as washing fleet trucks, toilet flushing, irrigation, and some other uses such as floor scrubbing, and recharging their batteries with water."
DeWalt says the second rain garden will help the company be a better environmental steward.
"This rain garden, in addition to the rain garden that's already out there will capture two million gallons of water a year. That's equivalent to the large water tower that's on New Circle Road between Leestown and Old Frankfort Pike, or a little bit over three Olympic-sized swimming pools. That's going to be a lot of water going back into the ground. That water will be treated, it will go back into the groundwater supplies, and it will increase the flow in our streams."
Company officials estimate the system will capture nearly 2 million gallons of storm-water runoff and pollutants each year.