Buffalo Trace should not be allowed to put warehouses anywhere it wants in Franklin Co.

The risk of environmental disaster looms behind the prospect of any bourbon warehousing. The more warehouses, the greater the risk.

Buffalo Trace has eight new warehouses built off 127 north on the hill overlooking Frankfort; it has room to add many more at that location. In addition, Buffalo Trace would like to build up to twenty warehouses on Peaks Mill Road just past Peaks Mill Elementary and adjacent to the Arnold Ridge Subdivision. Such development would put the place and its people at risk.

Bourbon burns hot and so do the oak barrels that contain it. Each new Buffalo Trace warehouse houses 58.800 barrels. Each barrel holds 53 gallons for a total of 3,116,400 gallons of bourbon. Percentage of cask strength bourbon alcohol is about 62.5%. That means there are approximately 1,957,750 gallons of pure alcohol in each warehouse. The peak burn temperature of an ethanol fire is 3488 degrees Fahrenheit. If one warehouse caught fire, it is possible that others—the warehouses are built in clusters of three or four--would catch fire as well, contributing millions of gallons of fuel to a fire.

The Buffalo Trace warehouses on 127 sit above both the Kentucky River and Cove Spring State Nature Preserve and Wetlands. Cove Spring is owned by the city and was created with federal and state grants; thus, it is protected by federal and state law. The unnamed tributary of the Kentucky River that runs along the Lewis Ferry access road to the Buffalo Trace warehouses is a special-use waterway due to the unique habitats along it.

Buffalo Trace has built containment walls around the clusters of warehouses on the hill. However, these walls are not likely to be sufficient to contain a spill from even a single warehouse. The failure of one or more warehouses would harm both waterways and wetlands, causing massive fish kill and environmental disaster. Though the probability of a warehouse fire is low, if it occurred, the devastation would be mighty, even catastrophic, for several years. Statistically speaking, it is a matter of when — not if —one of these warehouses will fail.

Peaks Mill has unique geology that makes it both special and sensitive. Underlain by limestone, it is classified as karst, featuring sinkholes, springs, and groundwater that moves into cracks and conduits and quickly reemerges into nearby streams and wetlands. Karst areas are vulnerable to pollution, and karst groundwater can flow in unexpected ways. Peaks Mill groundwater has not been mapped, so detailed karst study would be necessary before construction.

The Elkhorn and its riparian corridor are rich in wildlife, including foxes, coyotes, deer, wild turkey and a host of other birds, such as great blue heron, green heron, kingfishers, wood ducks, mallards, blue winged teal, hawks, kestrels, and bald eagles, in addition to abundant sport fish, smallmouth bass and bluegill in particular. Warehouse construction would threaten the ecological integrity of the area.

Having secured industrial zoning for warehouses on its 127 property despite its ecologically sensitive location, Buffalo Trace apparently concluded that the wetlands of Peaks Mill would pose no difficulty to development. This time, Buffalo Trace wants to change the zoning language itself so that bourbon warehousing would be allowed in any agricultural or rural residential area. If Buffalo Trace succeeds in changing the zoning code with a text amendment, the public will be streamlined out of the process of deciding where to locate bourbon warehouses. Essentially, Buffalo Trace wants the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Fiscal Court to help it exclude the public so that the bourbon business will never again be delayed by environmental or community concerns.

It would be a mistake to allow Buffalo Trace to expand into areas that are ecologically sensitive, culturally significant, historically unique, recreationally important, and environmentally beautiful. If our local government decides to sacrifice these many values for one value—corporate expansion—that choice would make our community less happy, less healthy, and less resilient. We won’t always be riding a bourbon boom. We need our bedrock core values and places to sustain us now and in the future.

Trina Peiffer is a farmer, poet, and president of the Franklin County Farmers Market.