By JEFF FRALEY

Guest columnist

At Kentucky Utilities, we’re committed to meeting or exceeding the requirements of our environmental permits at E.W. Brown Generating Station in order to ensure the water quality, aesthetics and recreational appeal of our beautiful Herrington Lake.

We take pride in our commitment to the environment, and the results from a lengthy and in-depth independent study, which began in 2017, indicate our operations at E.W. Brown have had no significant impacts on the water quality or fish populations in Herrington Lake.

The results of this comprehensive study have been submitted to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet for their review and approval, as part of the commitment we made to the cabinet — and to our community — two years ago to investigate conditions in Herrington Lake. 

This study was conducted by Ramboll, an internationally recognized independent environmental consulting firm. It included the collection of thousands of fish, water and sediment samples from areas throughout Herrington Lake during different seasons in the year to make sure all factors that could impact the study results were considered. Ramboll spent a year and a half planning, implementing and documenting the in-depth study, and its findings confirm the water quality is safe for recreational use and meets safe drinking water standards for our community. 

In addition, KU has recently spent more than $100 million to begin closure plans for our ash ponds at E.W. Brown, and to construct new treatment facilities for our coal combustion materials and an environmentally protective landfill. We’re also implementing other measures and finalizing a new water treatment facility that will enhance existing controls and ensure continued environmental protection of human health and the environment. Plans and schedules for those ongoing projects have also been submitted to the cabinet.

You can visit our website at lge-ku.com/HLstudy to review the results from the Herrington Lake study and read more about our projects.

Jeff Fraley is general manager of the E.W. Brown Generating Station.