Drainage

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While MSD and elected officials struggled with the mounting sanitary sewer challenges, drainage continued along its fragmented and disorganized course.

In 1965, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the county could not prohibit construction in floodplains without specific regulations on the subject of flooding. These regulations would take more than a decade to adopt.

Also in 1965, the federal government authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study flooding and flood prevention measures along Beargrass Creek. The study would take years to complete, and would document the problems of allowing development in the floodplain.

In 1966, Jefferson County completed a five-year, $3 million project to improve the drainage ditches and creeks in the Pond Creek basin. The work eased flooding problems, but didn’t eliminate them.

Heavy rains struck again in 1970, causing widespread local flooding problems. In Camp Taylor, sewers overflowed onto the ground, spreading their mixture of sewage and stormwater. The Louisville Public Works director said again that MSD was responsible for drainage in the city; MSD replied once again that all of its income came from sanitary sewer fees and all of its money was committed to sanitary sewers and secondary treatment.

The drainage situation in the unincorporated parts of Jefferson County led to a curious standoff in early 1969. For years, MSD had done the county’s drainage work, while the county paid the bill. After a major snowstorm in February, 1969, a county works official ordered the drainage crews to help salt and clear the roads. The crews stopped work, saying they were drainage workers, not highway workers. They demanded to see their "boss," and county and MSD officials couldn’t tell them who their "boss" was.

It took nearly two weeks to resolve the problem. Morris Forman himself appeared at a meeting of the drainage workers, assured them they were MSD employees, and said they would not be required to clear snow from roads.

Two ironies accompanied the incident:

• It would take more than two decades, instead of two weeks, for many Louisville and Jefferson County residents to find someone to take responsibility for their drainage problems; and
• A quarter-century later, after Louisville and Jefferson County were paralyzed by a record snowfall, MSD willingly agreed to join in a program to help clear the roads in a snow emergency.

The End of An Era

On July 1, 1972, not long after work began on secondary treatment facilities at the Fort Southworth plant, Morris Forman, age 75, retired as executive director of MSD. That summer, the treatment plant was re-named in his honor.

MSD History continued - A Time of Crises