|
MSD Enters
Into Consent Decree with EPA
In August 2005, the
Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) entered into a consent decree
with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the Kentucky State Division of Water (DOW). The purpose of the
consent decree is to address both combined sewer overflows (CSOs)
and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) in Louisville Metro.
Over the next
eighteen years, MSD will construct approximately $800 million in
capital sewer improvement projects that will:
- Minimize and
treat combined sewer overflows
- Eliminate
sanitary sewer overflows, and
- Rehabilitate the
community’s aging sewer system.
Almost 500 miles of
Louisville Metro’s 3,200 miles of sewer is now over 100 years
old. As projects are designed and constructed, the EPA and DOW
are requiring MSD to place public notification signs along
streams that are affected by combined and sanitary sewer
overflows. These streams include, but are not limited to:
- Ohio River, from
Beargrass Creek to McAlpine Locks
- Beargrass Creek,
along the Muddy, Middle and South Fork tributaries, and
- All other
waterways downstream of wet weather sanitary sewer
overflows.
The signs are
intended to warn and educate the public by providing the
following information:
- Warning to
refrain from water contact during and after rainstorms;
- Location of
combined/sanitary sewer overflows; and
- Notification
information should an overflow occur.
The signs are one
requirement of the Public Notification/Education section of the
Consent Decree. Other requirements will include:
- Television
scroll announcements;
- Radio messages;
- News releases;
- E-mail
notifications;
- Door
hangers/mailings; and
- Advertisements.
MSD workers started
placing the signs during the week of September 11.
News Release Archive |
