Published: March 13, 2008 07:18 pm            

Bill would leverage stream mitigation funds for water quality

A bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, would allow stream mitigation money to be returned to the same watershed from which it was generated to pay for water quality improvement.

Rocky Adkins wants a comprehensive approach to clean water – and he wants that to include more than stream mitigation.

Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, the Majority Leader in the state House of Representatives, explained to the House Natural Resource and Environment Committee on Thursday House Bill 717, which would allow stream mitigation money to be matched with other sources to improve water quality throughout Kentucky.

The fund presently requires mining operations, construction and development companies to pay fees into a stream mitigation fund to restore and repair streams damaged by their operations. But the money can be spent – through the Division of Fish and Wildlife – anywhere in the state and is not restricted to the streams or watershed where the development or mining takes place.

“Basically, the money is not getting back to the areas where they came from,” Adkins told the committee.

His bill would establish local watershed authorities which could receive the mitigation fees generated in that watershed. And Adkins wants to allow the money to be combined with other state and federal funds to improve water quality by several means – not just restoration or repair of damaged streams. Instead, the water authorities could construct water and sewer infrastructure to eliminate straight-pipe sewage – one cause of water pollution, especially in eastern Kentucky.

He previewed a pilot project along Troublesome Creek in Knott, Perry and Breathitt counties along a 50-mile stretch from Hindman to Jackson. Some 15,000 people live in the watershed area but only about 400 homes are served by a water treatment and sewer company. The Troublesome Creek Environmental Authority is trying to develop additional water treatment facilities along the creek and extend either sewer or septic service to more homes.

That may require a change in Corps of Engineer regulations but the Corps is considering such a change which could be announced by early next year, according to Adkins and Tom Fitzgerald of the Kentucky Resources Council.

Fitzgerald said the bill needs some work – and Adkins said he is meeting with interested groups such as Farm Bureau, Kentucky League of Cities, the Kentucky Association of Counties and others to improve the bill which was not called for a vote Thursday.

Fitzgerald said one concern of the groups is to avoid creating another level of bureaucracy while some environmental groups see the bill as a way to deflect support for more stringent legislation aimed at coal mining operations. But he said the bill has merit and can be improved further. He’s working with Adkins – who he said is genuinely interested in improving water quality – to make the bill better.

Ricky Handshoe of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, an activist group which supports clean water and opposes mountaintop removal operations which push spoil into adjacent valleys and streams, fears the bill does too little, too late.

“You can’t really fix a stream that’s already destroyed,” Handshoe said. “This bill will just let the coal companies continue doing what they’re doing.” Handshoe concedes straight pipe sewage is a problem in some parts of eastern Kentucky and needs attention, but he’s more concerned about permanent damage to vital streams by coal mining.

“The bottom line is don’t destroy the streams,” Handshoe said.

Adkins said water pollution is the result of several factors: road construction, mining, agricultural runoff, and runoff from commercial and residential development. He said storm water runoff is also a problem near developed and urban areas.

Adkins said his approach would allow both stream restoration and developing mitigation for all forms of water pollution.



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



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