Stormwater Management Department
The Stormwater Management Department maintains, operates and improves the major stormwater system in the City of Elizabethtown. Our department diagnoses problems and protects the residents who join the stormwater system through the FEMA program.
The Stormwater Management department inspects the following issues:
- Out of the ordinary high-water issues during a storm event
- Repetitive flooding occurrences
- Illicit discharge occurrence – illegal or improper connection to the stormwater drainage system like wash water, food waste, garbage and sewage overflows
- Blockages like tree debris in ditches, streams, main waterways or major culverts
- Any of these issues should be reported immediately.
The Stormwater Management Department is the repository for the City’s FEMA FIRM mapping and Flood Insurance Study. You can create and print FIRMETTE of your property that illustrates the proximity to any nearby regulatory floodplain at the FEMA Map Service Center website.
The Stormwater Department also ensures the stormwater quality within the City through the KPDES Phase II Program six-prong approach.
Department
Contact
City Hall
2nd Floor
200 West Dixie Avenue
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
Hours: Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Email: Stormwater@elizabethtownky.gov
Phone: 270-765-7873
Fax: 270-737-5362
Documents
- Understanding Stormwater
- Clean water is Everyone’s Business
- Creekwatch Program – Illicit Discharge
- Stormwater Quality - City Ordinance No. 07 - 2012
- Flood Damage Prevention - City Ordinance No. 27 - 2007
- Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control - City Ordinance No. 01 - 2007
- EPSC Permit Form
- Stormwater Master Plan
- Flood zone map
FAQ
The Stormwater Management department does not, the property owner maintains this. Grading and shaping in the front ditch may be considered by the Public Works Department.
The inlet leads directly to the system of ditches, pipes and creeks that feed our lakes and rivers. It is important to keep our surface waterways and groundwater free from contamination.
The leaves will be carried downstream during rainfall events to clog culverts and other facilities in the stormwater system. The resulting reduction in capacity of the stormwater system could cause flooding for you and your neighbors. Additionally, the decomposing leaves will negatively affect the quality of the stormwater within your watershed. The Public Works Department provides a free curbside loose and bagged leaf pickup throughout the fall leaf season.
Detention basins store peak stormwater flows temporarily and mete out this flow over a longer duration, using a designed orifice, at the equivalent discharge rate for the property prior to its development.
During and immediately after a rain, stormwater flows that originate within your yard and in nearby yards aggregate together in drainage swales to reach larger ditches and pipes. Introducing fill in your yard where not originally planned by the developer of your subdivision can upset the continuity of grade within these systems and result in standing water, soggy yards, dead grass, and in the worst cases, serious flooding.
The City has historically limited its stormwater maintenance responsibility to major pipes and ditches within public street right-of-ways. Driveway culverts remain the responsibility of the property owner.
In only a few, limited cases can a ditch along a street be piped without sacrificing the overall service life of the street. The roadside ditch in front of your house is an integral part of the roadway. Without the ditch, stormwater cannot efficiently leave the pavement section and enter a nearby stormwater system.