BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The odor is overwhelming at the mouth of Saltwell Road along Route 645, residents say. As the complaints pile up, waste from a Martin County Sanitation District sewer lift station runs into Saltwell Creek, causing untold environmental damage.
The lift station has been overflowing nonstop for weeks.
Residents have voiced concerns to the Kentucky Division of Water and sanitation district management Alliance Water Resources locally and at the company’s corporate office in Columbia, Missouri.
Residents have also taken their concerns to social media to discuss the “horrible” stench along KY-645. Some say the issue has been occurring for months; others note the problem has recurred for years.
Alliance Water Resources local manager Craig Miller said Tuesday that the heavy leak resulted from damaged infrastructure within the lift station.
“The actual pump is working, but the flanges that hold the pump onto the lift station broke,” Miller said.
Alliance president Tim Geraghty in Missouri advised Inez residents via letter Thursday that the pump had failed and parts were on order.
“It is one of many pump stations in need of significant work in order to increase its reliability,” Geraghty wrote. “Moreover, the wastewater treatment plants are failing.”
According to Miller, Alliance obtained the parts Tuesday morning.
“We actually just drove and met a vendor in Pike County to get the part,” said Miller. “We should begin working on that today to try to get that pump back up and running.”
Miller chalks the failure of the lift station’s pump flanges up to long-term use and improper maintenance.
“It’s just wear and tear from not rehabbing the stations over a long period of time,” said Miller. “We’re gonna be looking at rehabilitation of this sewer station along with many others to try to increase their life cycle. It’s a very big issue, and the sanitation district does not have many funds at their disposal. So we’re gonna be looking at grant opportunities to correct some of these issues as well.”
Geraghty says the revenue generated from the sewer district’s 869 customers is insufficient.
“The sewer district continues to be delinquent in payment to vendors and the wastewater treatment facilities are in need of critical and expensive repairs in order to meet Kentucky’s minimum standards. That problem may require additional sewer rate increases.”
As of Dec. 31, 2022, the sewer district had $489,441 in past-due vendor debt and owed Alliance $369,691 of that amount. The district reported collections of $68,000 in December 2022. It owed nearly 85% of that amount to Alliance for a $57,229 monthly management fee.
Calls to the Division of Water were not returned.
(Lisa Stayton contributed to this article.)