By Gary Pitts/Paducah Sun
Paducah, KY – Some Paducah residents are angry about a city policy that led to water being pumped into floodplain areas in order to protect other areas. The policy has been in existence since the 1940's when neighborhoods in floodplain areas were mostly farmland. Officials claim that while these areas are now populated with homes, it still makes since to pump excess water into them rather than allow the rest of the city to be flooded. Paducah City Engineer Rick Murphy tells WPSD these areas would have flooded anyway. The pumps simply sped up the process and saved "protected" areas.