Grants and loan forgiveness part of MSD effort to minimize ratepayer costs
LOUISVILLE, KY – The Louisville MSD Board approved resolutions to accept more than $28 million in grants and loan forgiveness to help pay for improvements in sewage treatment in Bullitt and Oldham counties along with flood protection in Jefferson County, at their meeting on October 28.
“This is the latest example of MSD’s consistent efforts to reduce the costs to ratepayers of infrastructure projects by seeking alternative funding,” MSD Executive Director Tony Parrott said after the board vote.
A $1.3 million grant from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA) will help with work in Oldham County to construct interceptor sewers that will send flow to MSD’s Floyds Fork Water Quality Treatment Center in Jefferson County, allowing for the decommissioning of the outdated Ash Avenue wastewater treatment plant in Oldham.
For Bullitt County, a $4.7 million KIA grant will fund replacement of an influent pump station at the Hunters Hollow wastewater treatment plant and allow for area wastewater to be treated at MSD’s Derek R. Guthrie Water Quality Treatment Center in Jefferson County.
The ongoing project to replace the Paddy’s Run Flood Pump Station in Jefferson County receives $5.4 million in principal forgiveness on a $57.6 million KIA loan.
The Paddy’s Run facility protects 216,000 people and 87,000 structures from flooding when the Ohio River rises.
The Paddy’s run project previously received $17 million in grants.
While finding alternative funding doesn’t prevent the need for rate increases, “it does allow MSD to deliver more needed and required projects with the same level of debt,” Chief Financial Officer Brad Good said. And that helps keep rate increases lower than they would be without grants and loan forgiveness.
