Flood-protection, drainage and wastewater projects to move forward as MSD board approves annual rate adjustment

Hite Creek
July 30, 2019

Important safety upgrades to two vital water quality treatment centers and continuing our progress in reducing pollution from sewer overflows with proceeds from a rate increase taking effect next month.

MSD’s board outlined a preliminary rate proposal in May and voted Monday, July 29, to approve the increase. It will take effect Thursday, August 1, and will increase the average wastewater bill by $3.47 per month and the average stormwater bill by $0.68 per month.

“This decision has been carefully considered and will help MSD continue to protect the environmental health and safety of our community,” said MSD Board Chair Marita Willis. “MSD’s engineers have extensively assessed the needs of the stormwater, wastewater and flood protection systems, and this increase will help us stay on schedule with the Consent Decree projects and move some other high-priority projects forward.”

Projects slated to move forward over the next 12 months include:

  • Water Quality Treatment: MSD will invest almost $14 million to upgrade key water quality treatment facilities. This amount includes an $8 million FY20 expenditure, with a total spend of nearly $24 million during the next three years to expand and improve MSD’s Hite Creek Water Quality Treatment Center. The expansion project will ensure proper wastewater treatment capabilities are in place for Louisville’s continued development in the northeastern corridor. In addition, MSD will commit $5.7 million toward new equipment at the Morris Forman Water Quality Treatment Center, MSD’s highest volume facility, treating up to 325 million gallons per day and serving more than 62 percent of the community’s wastewater treatment.
  • Floodplain Management: MSD will make $10 million in drainage improvements and flood mitigation projects across the community, as well as leverage funds for home buyouts in flood-prone areas.
  • Ohio River Flood Protection: MSD will invest more than $6.8 million to shore up the system of pumping stations, floodwalls and levees that protect the community when the Ohio River exceeds its banks. Included in this is a nearly $2.2 million project to rebuild critical pumps and other equipment at the Pond Creek Flood Pumping Station that were damaged during the record rainfall of February 2018.
  • Reducing Sewer Overflows: More than one half of MSD’s $205 million capital plan for FY2020 will make significant progress toward meeting the federal Consent Decree objective of reducing the vast majority of combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows that pollute area waterways by 2024. This work will total $115 million and include completion of storage basin projects in the Portland neighborhood and in Shawnee Park. Work also will continue on the Waterway Protection Tunnel, a 4-mile underground combined sewer overflow storage tunnel running from downtown to Lexington Road and Grinstead Drive.

“This year’s budget will allow us to keep making progress to meet our decades-long commitment with the Consent Decree to reduce pollution in the Ohio River, our creeks and streams, and meet the federal government’s environmental requirements,” said MSD Executive Director Tony Parrott.