The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Logan Street Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Basin on December 19 capped several years of work and community conversation that will now help maintain safer, cleaner waterways.
MSD Executive Director Tony Parrott said in opening remarks that the basin will capture 11 combined sewer overflow points that discharge 15,400,000 gallons of a mixture of sewage and rainwater in a typical rainfall year into the South Fork of Beargrass Creek. The basin will allow capture of these overflows.
The project’s ultimate design came following input from the Smoketown community, replacing the proposed one-story building with a grassy top that created a green-space addition to the neighborhood. The redesign will give neighborhood value, while also reflecting an $82 million investment in the Smoketown community, Parrott said.
The Logan Street CSO Basin is a concrete underground structure with a storage capacity of 16.7 million gallons. It has an above ground operations building and an access ramp to allow service vehicles to enter for periodic maintenance. There are 10,000 feet of 24- to 96-inch sewer pipes that collect flow from 11 overflow points and convey it to the basin. The sewer water is stored in the basin until capacity is available in the sewer system. At that time, the water is conveyed to Morris Forman Water Quality Treatment Center, treated and released into the Ohio River.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer emphasized the importance of the community input on the basin’s design. “This is a great day to see what could have been, and what is,” Fischer said. “This is the way a city is supposed to work.”
Also speaking during the event were Barbara Sexton Smith, Metro Councilwoman, District 4; John Phelps, MSD Board, Infrastructure Committee Chair; and Dr. F. Bruce Williams, Pastor Bates Memorial Baptist Church. Following the ribbon cutting, tours were offered through the basin.
MSD will transfer the site to the Louisville Metro Housing Authority to better accommodate public use and maintenance of the site. The Housing Authority will partner with the local community to develop and implement a plan for public use of the property. MSD will retain an easement to allow maintenance of the basin.
The basin and its interceptor sewer lines will be substantially complete on December 20, 2017, meeting all requirements for certification with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for MSD's Consent Decree deadline of December 31, 2017.
