Say no to Senate Bill 89
For years Kentucky laws have protected all of our sources of surface and groundwater. All that is at risk if Senate Bill 89 becomes law. The new law would remove all protections on any sources of water except on navigable waterways and those sources of water that have a continuous surface connection to those waterways. Even groundwater and temporary seasonal waterways created by rains and snow melt will no longer be covered. While this proposed law was sponsored by coal companies, any other polluter, including dump sites and timber harvesting, would be free of responsibility as well. No license or other government “red tape” will be required. Water supplied by wells for drinking, businesses and farms would no longer be protected affecting 1.5 million Kentuckians who get their water from groundwater sources. Dumping or discharging hazardous chemicals, pollutants and contaminates into headwaters by anybody would be allowed since no permit, limits, sampling or reporting will be required and no fines imposed.
What does this mean for Kentucky communities? The pollution will start at the headwaters and move downstream. We all live downstream. Many Kentucky communities rely on groundwater sources for their safe drinking water. And all that pollution will make its way to the navigable waters from which many other communities draw their potable water. Fish and other organisms that live in those waters, including the wetlands that contribute to flood abatement, will suffer. State authority over water distribution and groundwater purification systems would be eliminated. State agencies would no longer have the authority to enter property to prevent or during an environmental emergency or to require businesses which create the emergency to clean it up themselves. And flooding incidents may be worse.
Who will bare the cost? The cost to purify the water would be born by local municipalities – if they can afford it. Water quality will vary by zip code. Your taxes will be affected. Costs to the general health of our bodies and our environment would be born by citizens and their local governments alone, if they can.
What can you do now? The Senate has already passed the bill. It is up to the House to pass it now. Are you as horrified as I am? Then call the Kentucky State General Assembly Hotline at 1(800)372-7181 and leave a message for our state rep Dan Fister registering your objection to the bill and say why. Then call again and choose the option to send that message to all state reps. I have done that and now I am asking our State Senator, Amanda Mays Bledsoe, to explain to us in writing in this newspaper why she voted to approve SB 89 and what she hopes it will provide for her constituents. Silence will speak volumes.
Deborah Moore Knittel,
Versailles
Concern about Senate Bill 89
Kentucky Senate Bill 89 (An ACT relating to environmental protection and declaring an Emergency), passed out of the Natural Resources & Energy Committee on Wednesday February 12th, and was passed by the entire Senate 2 days later and is now awaiting House action. I am concerned about the unintentional impact of this bill on the creeks of Woodford County.
This bill would change the definition of waterways covered by State oversight from the current oversight of all waterways to the Federal definition of waterways with a surface connection to a major river. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently being downsized and restructured, and will have limited ability to intervene in any threat to these waterways for an indefinite time..
We live in a Karst Geology, which means the rainwater goes down a few feet until it reaches a limestone barrier. It then meanders by way of cracks and sinkholes until it finds a passageway, and emerges on the hillside as a spring or seep. Although mud and debris are filtered out, dissolved contaminants may emerge unchanged to flow into our waterways. Chemicals dumped on the ground will find their way unchanged to our streams.With state protections removed, there would be no consequences for pollutants being deposited on the ground finding their way to our creeds. Glenns Creek flows past Woodford Reserve and Castle & Key distilleries who are a major source of tourism for the county. A significant part of their attraction is the pristine waters flowing through the property and any deterioration of those waterways could have an economic impact locally
I have lived on Clear Creek since 2005, and its clear, spring fed waters have been a playground for first my children, and now my grandchildren. We have the clearest example of Karst geology, with water entering sinkholes hundreds of yards from the stream subsequently erupting like a fire hydrant from the cliff side, making a spectacular show after a hard rain. I mourn the potential loss of these gems I had hoped to pass down as a family legacy.
For the future of our wonderful county, and for the lives of our children and those yet to be born, please work together to prevent injury to our land.
Dr. Ronald C Burgess
Versailles