Roles for Citizens
To learn more about these opportunities in your community, click on your county in the map above.
- Join the PRIDE team in your county or city by contacting your local PRIDE Coordinator.
- Participate in your community’s PRIDE cleanups.
- Look for and report illegal trash dumps to your solid waste coordinator.
- Join your local Watershed Watch program.
- Help with the environmental education projects in your local schools.
- Encourage your city and county officials to apply for PRIDE grants.
- Help low-income friends and family, especially the elderly, apply for a PRIDE Homeowner Septic System Grant.
Benefits for Citizens
By doing your part, you will share the benefits of restoring the region’s natural beauty, including:
- Improved quality of life for you and your children.
- Lower health risks.
- Better recreation sites.
- Economic growth through increased tourism, more retirees and new businesses.
- More job opportunities.
Overview of Pollution Problems
The PRIDE initiative is making tremendous progress in cleaning up the two most significant pollution problems in southern and eastern Kentucky – illegal trash dumps and inadequate wastewater treatment. These were problems of our own making, with consequences that spread well beyond the original pollution source. With personal responsibility and regional cooperation, we are solving these problems.
Past. For much of the last century, we took our region’s natural beauty for granted. We disposed of our trash and wastewater the best way we knew how. We didn’t realize that we were slowly degrading our quality of life.
Future. Now, we know about the health hazards related to garbage and wastewater, as well as the economic consequences of polluting our unique natural resources. PRIDE is educating citizens about these problems and providing resources to assist in solving them.
Illegal Dumps. In Kentucky, it is illegal to dispose of waste anywhere other than a facility licensed by the state. Dumping trash illegally pollutes our hillsides and water. When the trash is dumped on a bank near a stream, the trash gets washed into the stream when it rains, or is carried by animals. Once in the stream, the trash can be carried for many miles and pollute several communities.
Straight Pipes and Failing Septic Systems. The region’s mountainous terrain and rocky soil make it difficult and expensive to lay sewer lines, so onsite wastewater treatment methods are predominant. In some places, the soil is so dense, septic systems cannot function properly. In other cases, people cannot afford or choose not to install septic tanks and, instead, use straight pipes to rid their homes of sewage. As a result, raw sewage from straight pipes and failing septic systems has become a major source of water pollution in our region.
Regional Problem. Streams filled with trash and raw sewage are no longer safe to swim in, or for the wildlife to drink. Open dumps are havens for diseases, which can be carried by animals to humans. Because the region is connected by hundreds of creeks, streams and rivers, pollution is not isolated to its original source.
Regional Solution. Pollution is a regional problem, and the people and communities of the region must work together to solve it. That is why the PRIDE initiative is a region-wide effort.
|
Home 
