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Troubled Blue Sky Wastewater Treatment Plant closed

Lexington took over control of privately-owned wastewater treatment plant in 2003

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 17, 2014) — Lexington’s Division of Water Quality (DWQ) took the Blue Sky Wastewater Treatment Plant off-line last week following the completion of a new sanitary sewer pump station serving the area.

drinking waterIn 2003, the city assumed emergency management of the privately-owned wastewater treatment plant at the request of the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection. The plant had received environmental violations for its operating deficiencies and pollutant discharges, which have since been corrected.

In 2014, DWQ began constructing a pump station and force main to redirect sewage from the Blue Sky plant to the West Hickman Wastewater Treatment Plant. This phase of the project, at a cost of nearly $2 million, was completed last Wednesday.

The Blue Sky plant was a primary source of nutrient discharge to the tributary of Baughman Fork Creek, which is listed as impaired for nutrients on the state’s impaired stream list.