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Leitchfield council adopts amended sewer ordinance setting pollutant limits to protect WWTP permit
Summary
The Leitchfield City Council adopted an amended ordinance updating pollutant limits for discharges to the city sewer system — including BOD, TSS and ammonia caps — and established surcharge rates for exceedances to help keep the wastewater treatment plant in compliance with its KPDES permit. The vote was recorded as unanimous.
Leitchfield — The City Council adopted a revised ordinance regulating public and private sewers that sets specific pollutant concentration limits and surcharge rates intended to prevent the city wastewater treatment plant from violating its KPDES permit.
At second and final reading, an Unidentified Speaker read the ordinance’s preamble and the new numeric limits, stating that the evaluated limits will be used as the maximum allowable concentrations. The ordinance text read aloud sets biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) at 300 mg/L, total suspended solids (TSS) at 300 mg/L and ammonia (NH3) at 30 mg/L. The ordinance also specifies surcharge rates for industrial loadings that exceed those limits (the reading lists BOD at 0.44¢ per pound, TSS at 0.33¢ per pound and ammonia at $0.69 per pound as the rates articulated in the amendment).
Unidentified Speaker said the ordinance updates a long-standing code first enacted in 1976 and amended several times since, and that the revised pollutant caps are meant to prevent pass-through or interference that could cause the city’s WWTP to violate state discharge requirements.
Tim moved to accept the ordinance and Clayton seconded. A roll call produced a sequence of seven recorded “Aye” responses and the ordinance was adopted; the text states it takes effect after passage, approval and publication as provided by law.
Why it matters: the new numeric limits and surcharge mechanism aim to give the city a regulatory and financial tool to deter discharges that could compromise permit compliance and increase treatment costs. Council members did not request additional substantive changes on the floor and no amendments were offered during the adoption vote.
The ordinance reading and roll-call adoption were presented to the council at the December 2025 meeting; the city will publish the ordinance as required by statute to make the effective date public.
