The Lexington Urban County Council is considering a 12% increase to the city’s sanitary sewer fee.
The move is meant to raise funds to prevent the system from leaking sewage into local streams. Under the terms of a 2011 decree by the Environmental Protection Agency, Lexington is required to fix the sewer system or face stiff fines. In Tuesday’s Council Work Session, Vice Mayor Steve Kay said the work is past due.
“For whatever reason, we did not have the political will to invest in infrastructure that needed to be fixed. This is not a new problem. It’s coming due on our watch, but it’s the right thing to do, and it’s something we should have been doing and we should be doing it whether we have a consent decree or not,” he said.
Officials from the Division of Water Quality said that while they have been able to avoid rate increases in past years due to efficiency, the current proposal is needed so they can seek bonds for additional infrastructure, particularly storage tanks. The measure is on the docket for Thursday’s council meeting, and if approved, would raise the average resident’s monthly bill from $24.36-$27.29. If passed, the proposal projects similar increases in the following two years.
