SOMERSET, Ky. (LEX 18) — In a contentious meeting, the City of Somerset councilmembers voted to end a program that treats wastewater from other communities.
Mayor Alan Keck maintained the program was safe and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. A group of citizens said they were concerned harmful chemicals could slip through into Lake Cumberland.
"Why are we dumping leachate through the wastewater treatment facility into the lake?" asked a member of the public to Keck and the council.
Leachate is water that's been drained from landfills and contains chemicals from that waste.
Keck said the city's water treatment plant has the ability to treat the water and they can generate revenue by treating leachate from other communities. He said the water that comes out of their plant shows no detectable levels of harmful chemicals from the waste.
The speakers who showed up Monday evening were concerned the "forever chemicals," found in everyday products that end up in landfills and do not break down are making it through the treatment process and ending up in the lake. Keck said the city monitors for those chemicals and that they have not detected any.
"I recognize that you all have spent some time, you've researched this, you've looked at it. I'm talking to the folks that mandate and regulate the water that we drink every day, that we trust at state government and at the EPA," Keck said.
Keck and members of the public engaged in a back and forth discussion about the program. Some councilmembers discussed the idea of having a public forum with input from environmental experts who could answer questions from the public.
Before the meeting adjourned, though, Councilmember Jim Mitchell moved for the city to adopt a resolution ending the program. The motion passed unanimously.
