Published: March 20, 2008 10:05 pm            

Hal Rogers goes to Frankfort in support of water quality

FRANKFORT — Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers came to Frankfort on Thursday and lent a hand to a Democratic Kentucky lawmaker’s bill designed to make it easier to improve water quality.

Rogers appeared before the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee in support of HB 717 sponsored by Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook.

The bill would encourage establishment of watershed authorities made up of representatives of local government, water and sewer utilities, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and business and industry to look for ways to clean up streams and rivers. It would allow — subject to approval by the U.S. Corps of Engineers — the use of in-lieu payments for stream mitigation for up to 25 percent of the costs of water quality improvements. That might include sewer systems as well as restoration of damaged streams.

The bill passed out of committee unanimously. Once Adkins had agreed to some changes to the bill sought by a number of affected groups, there was little doubt of the bill’s passage. But there was none Thursday after Rogers’ testimony.

The Republican congressman is the creator of PRIDE, Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment, which has benefited from federal funds to make significant improvements in cleaning up illegal dumps, streams and trash in eastern Kentucky. Rogers recounted the successes of the PRIDE program and said HB 717 represents the next step in cleaning up the state of Kentucky from environmental pollution.

Rogers said when PRIDE began in 1997 a survey of eastern Kentucky estimated there were 36,000 straight pipes dumping some sort of sewage or waste into the water system. Since then, 28,000 of those have been eliminated as septic tanks and sewage treatment systems have replaced them. He said $25 million has been expended to clean up 2,452 illegal dumps; nearly 170,000 appliances such as stoves, refrigerators and dishwashers have been collected and disposed of preventing their dumping.

The program has also involved nearly 240,000 volunteers and 837 grants to schools to provide environmental education.

Rogers told the committee it will take money to clean up pollution and trash in Kentucky.

That, said Adkins, is one of the goals of his bill, to allow money from multiple sources to be combined for greater impact.

After the meeting, Rogers said he thinks Adkins’ bill may influence the U.S. Corps of Engineers to allow the use of future in-lieu mitigation fees for projects such as those envisioned by Adkins. It would not apply to existing banked in-lieu payments.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

        

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