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$97 million
increase from the previous
estimated cleanup cost

5.8 billion
gallons of sewage and
rain reports to have
spilled from CSOs in 2015

SCOTT UTTERBACK/COURIER-JOURNAL
Rhonda Curry spent the summer training for the Ironman triathlon by swimming in the Ohio River. Despite recent progress, Louisville still dumps large volumes of sewage into local waterways.

$943M sewer problem

10 years after cleanup deal, MSD is waging an expensive Inside
By the numbers:

fight to keep tons of sewage out of area waterways Cherokee Park $45
gets relief from Typical residential custom-
ith no hesitation, Rhonda Curry tions, but records show that as much as 5.8 billion

W
sewage system ers bimonthly bill in 2005
and her triathlon training part- gallons of raw sewage may have poured into area work. 10A
James
ner John Misiewicz jumped off a
Bruggers
waterways in 2015, due to heavy rainfall. Thats $105
dock near Towhead Island into the most since at least 2012. Jeffersonville Typical residential custom-
Environment asks regulators
the Ohio River. Cleanup costs are projected to climb to $943 ers bimonthly MSD bill in
On this day in late summer, they dodged float- million, an 11 percent increase over the $850 mil- for deadline 2016
ing plastic bottles and other debris, and Misiew- lion previously estimated, as MSD faces a quick relief. 10A
iczs right arm collided with a 4-foot-long plastic turnaround on a new round of expensive and com- 46
pipe. plicated construction jobs. Online Miles of replaced or reha-
When we say we are going to swim in the Since 2005, when the sewer renovation plan bilitated miles of lines
Ohio, most of the people I know say, Oh, thats began, a typical residential customers bill has At courier-
so gross, Curry said after the Waterfront Park more than doubled, rising to $105 every two journal.com, $4 million -
workout. There are days when it is ... months from about $45. find multiple MSD consent decree fines
The main problem is sewage. In a series MSDs sewer renovations are designed to videos and an and penalties paid since
A decade after the U.S. Environmental Protec- today and handle rainfall from a typical year and are based interactive look 2005
tion Agency and the Kentucky Energy and Envi- next Sunday, on 2001 amounts. But with storms getting more in- at the spills and
ronment Cabinet forced a court-approved, 19- the CJ tense, that may not be enough. repairs in the 1.1 billion
year plan to clean up Jefferson Countys waste- examines Even after 2024, when the community has city and your The gallons of raw-sewage
water system, a Courier-Journal analysis has progress to spent nearly $1 billion to renovate its sewer sys- neighborhood. overflows eliminated from
found that while much progress has been made, meet a tem, its waterways still may not be considered Also see various sources since 2005
Louisville is still dumping huge volumes of un- federal clean enough for safe swimming and wading un- animation of
treated sewage into waterways. deadline for less the region does more to control polluted how sewage 54
In a series of articles starting today, the CJ ex- controlling stormwater from parking lots, streets, lawns and diversion Percentage of sanitary
amines local Metropolitan Sewer District data on sewage spills farms. works. sewer overflow locations
spills since 2005 and other records, finding that: and cleaning that have been eliminated
MSD has stopped spills at some 340 loca- waterways. See SEWAGE, Page 9A or fixed

Trumptucky: Why the Bluegrass State loves The Donald

and factories. He raised two sons, rode
his Harley and bought American.
But he didnt like the changes that un-
Chris Kenning folded over time. Good-paying factory
Staff writer work dried up and moved overseas.
@ckenning_cj Neighborhood blight, welfare and drugs
increased. He worried about illegal im-
Go looking for Donald Trumps Ken- migrants taking jobs. He disliked Presi-
tucky, and you might find yourself on dent Barack Obama. It began to feel like
Terry Wrights front porch. his corner of America, where 42 percent
Wright, 59, a registered Democrat, live in poverty, was being left behind.
grew up in the working-class Portland When Trump vowed to make Amer-
neighborhood, where worn shotgun ica great again, Wright was sold.
houses line historic streets near the Ohio Trumps inconsistent opinions and com-
River. As a young man, his high school ments about Muslims, Mexicans and
degree was enough for factory jobs. He women that offended many didn't deter
made a decent living painting bridges him. Hes going to make America Amer-
ica again, he said, pointing to a Trump
sign stuck in his chain-link fence last
week.
Walter Morgan lives in Trumps Ken-
tucky, too 200 miles away on the other
side of the state near Hyden, a tiny town
tucked into the hills of the states trou-
bled Appalachian coal fields.
Since 2012, the 40-year-old coal miner
watched more than half the coal jobs in
Eastern Kentucky go up in smoke, the
impact rippling throughout the economy.
His hourly pay dropped from $21 to $16
before he was finally laid off, too. While
CHRIS KENNING/COURIER-JOURNAL its the result of competition from natural
Terry Carpenter, 62, says he will be voting for
Donald Trump in November. See TRUMP, Page 11A

INDEX Editorial ................... 1H Lottery ..................... 2A Sports ........................ 1C courier-journal.com @courierjournal

Arts ............................. 1I Features .................... 1E Metro ....................... 3A USA TODAY ............. 1B
Deaths ................... 23A Homes ....................... 1J Neighborhoods ... 19A Weather .................. 2A facebook.com/courierjournal @courierjournal

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8A Sunday, October 30, 2016 The Courier-Journal
Climate change threatens sewage cleanup plans
JAMES BRUGGERS
@JBRUGGERS
Changing local weather threatens to
undercut Louisvilles big investment in
cleaner waterways.
The Metropolitan Sewer Districts 19-
year sewer system improvements re-
quired by the Environmental Protection
Agency are largely based on accommo-
dating rainfall patterns in the year 2001
deemed typical based on the historical
record.
But with eight years left in a program
that must be completed in 2024, MSD is
already documenting more frequent, in-
tense rains. And some observers are
wondering whether the EPA eventually
will require even more costly sewage-
spill controls because the weather in,
say, 2030 wont be anything like what it
was in 2001.
MSD officials say they hope that
wont be the case. But Brian Bingham,
MSDs operations chief, said that its
skewing to where the big (storms) are
getting bigger, while acknowledging
the possibility of related challenges
complying with the federal Clean Water
Act and protecting the community from
flooding.
A warmer atmosphere holds more
moisture. And scientists are concerned
about what that means for communities
across the nation that are beginning to
grapple with how to adapt to global
warming.
Based on our climate science, we ex-
pect (extreme rain) to go up, said Ken-
neth Kunkel, a senior scientist with the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministrations Cooperative Institute for
Climate and Satellites in North Carolina.
You better prepare for bigger rain
events and more frequent heavy rain
events.
The stakes are high.
Communities are investing a lot of
money on infrastructure, and they are
going to want it to work, said David
Easterling, a NOAA climate scientist.
But the statistical models they use now
for rain may not be taking into account
these new trends.
Are we doing enough?
Heavy rains washing off roads, park-
ing lots and buildings fill up shared sew-
er and storm pipes in the older parts of
Louisville, causing massive spills to
Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River 5.6
billion gallons in 2015 alone, according to
an analysis by the Courier-Journal. That
volume was 130 percent higher than the
year before, elevated by an extremely
wet 2015, and about 1 billion gallons more
than an estimated 10-year average.
Runoff
Continued from Page 1A
should certainly help, he said.
But by all accounts, one of the big-
gest culprits is all the hard surfaces
that act like funnels to storm drains
leading to creeks and rivers. And Louis-
ville has a lot of hard surfaces.
In April, for example, readers of a
smart-growth blog, Streetsblog, voted
Louisville the winner of the 2016 Golden
Crater Award, a symbol of the shame-
ful amount of space weve allowed sur-
face parking to consume in our commu-
nities.
The blog said that barren asphalt in
the SoBro neighborhood near down-
town carried Louisville to victory.
Depaving SWAT team
The citys sustainability plan identi-
fied the need to reduce hard surfaces,
said Maria Koetter, the citys sustaina-
bility director. It called that one of the
greatest challenges to Louisvilles wa-
terways, requiring changes in how
the city manages existing areas, new
property developments, and infra-
structure retrofits throughout Louis-
ville.
Its one of those issues we need to
take on as a city, kind of like recycling,
Koetter said.
The citys recent studies on urban
heat and trees are driving discussions
and actions that should help by boosting
tree canopy, which soaks up rain, she
added.
Koetter also envisions a volunteer
stormwater SWAT team for parking
lots an attack crew with sledge ham-
mers and shovels backed by engineers
who help parking lot owners remove
enough asphalt to at least let some rain
seep into the soil.
MSD has a $47 million green infra-
structure incentive program thats
helping to make some parking lots soak
up more rain with features such as bio-
swales, rain gardens and porous pave-
ment. And MSD in 2013 for the first time
required developers to treat and clean
part of the first flush of polluted run-
off at new or redeveloped residential,
commercial and industrial projects.
Owners and managers of those proper-
ties must make sure those cleaning
mechanisms keep working.
But weve been here before. Theres
been no shortage of studies aimed at
greening up Beargrass Creek, the Cou-
rier-Journal found in a 2008 special re-
port. Theyve largely collected dust.
#KY#Metro#
That rain fell over 91 days, according to
MSD records. The maximum intensity
of rainfall that year was just under an
inch an hour, and the biggest storm
dumped 3.15 inches over 46 hours. That
was found to be a 2.8-year sized storm.
When an engineer has to design
pipes ... what they do is go back 50 to 100
years, said Dennis Sayre, an environ-
mental engineer with the EPA in Atlanta.
They dont have a crystal ball. They use
best engineering practices. An engineer
would not be able to stand before a judge
and say, Im guessing.
He said he cannot say how the EPA
would respond to more spills that might
be brought on by climate change.
But he said the EPA is trying to get
utilities like MSD to have a culture
change and to maintain their systems
based on current and projected condi-
tions. The hope is, in 20 years, EPA
doesnt have to revisit Louisville.
COURIER-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
Margin of safety
As much as seven inches of rain fell in two hours on Aug. 4, 2009, causing widespread flash Bingham said that even though MSD
flooding, emergency rescues and massive sewage overflows. Here, a newly arrived immigrant is sizing its sewer system on 2001, the
family to Louisville was seen navigating water at Broadway and Brent streets at Beargrass agency put some safety factors into its
Creek. MSD officials say Louisville is getting extreme rain more frequently. calculations because of climate con-
cerns.
For example, the reductions in over-
MSDs planned network of seven gi- some of it, and we dont know how much, flows achieved by most of a planned $50
ant underground storage basins and a is certainly attributable to climate million in spending on so-called green in-
2.5-mile-long tunnel is designed to tem- change. How MSD is anticipating that is frastructure making the city more like
porarily hold that mixture of rain and a big question that needs to be ad- a sponge are not being counted by the
sewage for treatment later. But will all dressed. EPA for compliance purposes, he said.
that storage be enough to handle the That gives MDS wriggle room to meet
storms of the future? No crystal balls EPA requirements, Bingham said.
Scientists talk about rain events in MSD officials say the changing rain Trees also reduce runoff and sewage
T
terms of their chances of occurring in patterns are on top on their minds. overflows by capturing and storing wa-
any single year. For example, what they Bingham said hes more worried ter, so Louisvilles efforts to restore a di-
call a 100-year storm would have a 1 per- about increased flooding risks in the minished tree canopy should help, Ak-
cent chance of happening in any year years ahead due in part to MSDs aging ridge said.
based on historical records. By contrast, flood-protection system, including anti- But with bigger storms more com-
a five-year storm would have a 20 per- quated Ohio River flood pumping sta- mon, the consent decree requirements
cent chance of occurring in any year, tions. may not be enough, warns one MSDS
while a two-year storm would have a 50 Detention basins around town arent critic, attorney Bud Hixson.
percent chance. going to be big enough to keep rain out of We could be paying ($943 million) in
One might, therefore, expect a 100- the subdivisions and the neighbor- construction costs and millions more in
year storm in Louisville, that would be hoods, warned Akridge. annual operation costs, with so much un-
4.5 inches of rain in six hours, or 6.2 inch- MSDs consent agreement with the treated sewage still going into the creeks
es over 24 hours to happen once a centu- federal and state regulators could still be they will remain unsafe, Hixson said.
ry. changed and projects modified as new NOAAs Easterling said that new sta-
But MSD counts at least three such information about local weather emerg- tistical techniques are just now being de-
potent storms in Louisville in the last two es, Akridge said. Some changes were re- veloped that factor in weather trends
decades. cently made to increase the capacities of when calculating the return period of
And, they say, Louisville has had 11 new storage basins, but the modifica- storms of various intensity.
storms with 3 inches or more of rain in 24 tions were still based on 2001 weather Communities that go into the future
hours in the last decade. Thats a dou- patterns. with open eyes could save money, he add-
bling of those larger storms compared to Everything we are designing that the ed.
the previous 50 years, according to MSD. EPA has approved is based on what was Its a lot less expensive to design in
The amount of rain we are seeing, in place and what happened in 2001, Ak- an extra 10 or 20 percent capacity now
some of it is obviously attributable to ridge added. We are not designing for than to retrofit later, he said.
normal weather changes, said Tim 2030.
Joice, watershed program director for In 2001, 42.8 inches of rain fell, which Reach reporter James Bruggers at
the Kentucky Waterways Alliance, an is about 6 inches less than MSD says the (502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-
environmental advocacy group. But Louisville area has averaged since 2005. journal.com.
Location of sewage storage basins and tunnel
basin
Portland
2.5 mile long tunnel
Capacity: 6.7M gallons
Clifton Heights
Capacity: 7M gallons
Southwestern Parkway
Capacity: 20M gallons
Underground sewage
storage tunnel
I-64 & Grinstead Drive
Capacity: 8.5M gallons
Logan Street
Capacity: 16.7M gallons
Bells Lane
Capacity: 25M gallons
Nightingale
Capacity: 7.7M gallons
Combined sewer overflows Sanitary sewer overflows by waterway
by waterway 80
71.4
40 70
36.3
60
Middle Fork Beargrass Creek
Middle Fork Beargrass Creek
Muddy Fork Beargrass Creek
South Fork Beargrass Creek
30
South Fork Beargrass Creek
50 45.5
40
Millions of gallons
Billions of gallons
Upper Sinking Fork
Wedgewood Ditch
20
30 26.6
Beargrass Creek
Northern Ditch
Greasy Ditch
Alvey Ditch
20
Ohio River
Ohio River
Mill Creek
10
6.1 12.5
1.3
3.1 10 7.0 6.2 5.8 5.3 4.8
2.2
0 0
Location of spills, over 10 years Location of spills, over 10 years
Now there is a new study underway tween now and the end of 2020 to tackle tunnel will hold sewage and rain until
looking at improvements and public ac- the huge task of curbing billions of gal- the rain passes, then send the wastewa-
cess on the lower portions of the creek lons of annual overflows from com- ter for treatment when the system can
by Louisville Metro Parks and the U.S. bined storm and sewer pipes as it enters handle it. MSD will capture and treat 98
Army Corps of Engineers. the second half of its 19-year sewer sys- percent of that combined sewer over-
tem cleanup. flow volume for whats been deemed a
Missed goal Failure is not an option, said Greg typical year of rain, said Angela Ak-
Four years. Seven large sewage stor- Powell, an MSD engineer, or EPA could ridge, chief engineer of the agency.
age basins. One giant tunnel. hit MSD with big fines.
MSD is under a tight deadline be- The storage basins and 2.5-mile long Continued on Next Page
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SUNDAY 10.30.16 ll COURIER-JOURNAL.COM ll INDIANA EDITION ll PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
EX-COP NOW HUNTS THE HAUNTED
PHOTOS BY MATT STONE/COURIER-JOURNAL
Paranormal investigators Mike Culwell, left, and Matthew Jackson conduct an investigation at a potters field cemetery at Sam
Peden Community Park in New Albany earlier in October. Culwell is a retired detective from the New Albany Police Department.
NEW ALBANY,
CHASING
Ind. Standing over
Kristina
two headstones a few
Goetz hundred yards from
Staff the abandoned Floyd
writer
County Asylum,
Mike Culwell slipped
SPIRITS
a St. Michael holy
card from his wallet
and recited the
Catholic prayer for
protection. The re-
tired 36-year veteran
of the New Albany Police Depart-
ment readied himself for another
investigation. But neither gun nor
badge would offer him sanctuary in
this case.
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle, he intoned. Be
our safeguard against the wicked-
ness and snares of the devil. By
the power of God, thrust into hell
Satan, and all the evil spirits who
wander through the world for the
ruins of souls. Amen.
Mike and his fellow investigator,
Matthew Jackson, knew not the cul-
prits. They had no notion of who
they were looking for nor what
theyd find. They had no names
save the ones on the headstones:
Lerian Neves and Charles Potter.
Yet in this potters field, they
hoped to commune with the dead.
The pair are members of a loose-
ly knit network of paranormal en-
Paranormal investigator Matthew Jackson of Paraholics.com holds a voice recorder thusiasts that Matthew founded
while calling out to spirits that may be in the former juvenile home in New Albany who call themselves Paraholics.
on Grant Line Road. Moments later, a short wail could be heard down the hallway. They like to say: Our addiction isnt
normal. Its paranormal.
Their methods arent scientific,
Explore the investigation in a 360 degree virtual reality video. and they profess neither proof nor
YouTube: cjky.it/asylum-360video Facebook: cjky.it/asylum-360videofb See SPIRITS, Page 10A
INDEX Deaths ................... 25A Lottery ..................... 2A Sports ........................ 1C
Arts ............................. 1I Editorial ................... 1H Indiana .................... 3A USA TODAY ............. 1B
College Basketball . 1K Features ................... 1D Neighborhoods ... 21A Weather .................. 2A
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POLLUTED
RUNOFF MAY
PUT CITY IN
HOT WATER
One big challenge: Reducing hard
surface areas that add to problem
Its the more-than-a-billion-dol-
lar question: What will it take to
James
clean up our urban waterways,
Bruggers such as the three forks of Bear-
Environment
grass Creek that drain so much of
Louisville?
The answer is likely a lot more
than the $943 million the Metropol-
itan Sewer District is spending to
curb spills from its leaking sewer
system.
Dirty, contaminated stormwa-
About ter washes off streets, parking lots,
the series buildings, lawns and farms when it
rains. And under federal clean-wa-
A decade after ter rules, its not regulated as tight-
ly as what comes out of a sewage
the EPA and
the state pipe.
forced a court- Bruce Scott, a longtime Bear-
approved, grass Creek advocate and former
19-year plan to president of the Kentucky Water-
clean up ways Alliance, calls stormwater
Jefferson the 800-pound gorilla. Thats
Countys where most of the pollution is com-
wastewater ing from.
system, a A lot of attention has focused on
Courier-Journal Beargrass Creek, whose three
analysis has forks the Muddy, the Middle and
found that the South drain 61 square miles
while much across the heart of Louisville. The
progress has creek receives massive volumes of
been made, sewage overflows by design, from
Louisville is still combined sewage and stormwater
dumping huge pipes that spill during rain. But a
volumes of Beargrass Creek study from a few
untreated years ago identified stormwater
sewage into not those combined sewer over-
waterways. flows as the biggest problem,
causing more than 60 percent of
More online that waterways pathogen pollu-
tion, which can cause infections
At courier- and stomach ailments.
journal.com, The state and (Environmental
find multiple Protection Agency) have been
videos and an starting to move toward more sam-
interactive look pling of stormwater to get a better
at the spills and assessment of where they may be
repairs in the having issues, said Lindell Orms-
city and your bee, director of the Kentucky Wa-
neighborhood. ter Resources Research Institute
Also see at the University of Kentucky. But
animation of at this point, there still are not reg-
how sewage ulatory limits placed on stormwa-
diversion ter outfalls.
works. Studies show that groundwater
in that watershed is also polluted,
and Ormsbee said he suspects a lot
of that is from leaking sewers. If
they fix the leaking sewers, that
See RUNOFF, Page 8A
courier-journal.com @courierjournal
facebook.com/courierjournal @courierjournal
Dr. Kenneth Smith
HU
OFF ER ERXRY,
Noavr.. 3301PtIR
M ES
sht
10,000 procedures
performed since 2003
10A Sunday, October 23, 2016 The Courier-Journal
Jeff cant afford sewer fixes, seeks EPA delay
MADELEINE WINER
COURIER-JOURNAL
Jeffersonville has asked federal reg-
ulators for a 10-year deadline extension
to improve its inadequate sewer system
because of limited financing options and
rising costs.
While the city has already spent near-
ly $100 million on sewer improvements
required under a Clean Water Act decree
since 2010, the price tag for the last
phase could jump from the budgeted $33
million up to $45 million, based on cur-
rent construction costs, said Len Ash-
ack, Jeffersonvilles utilities director.
And thats money that the city would
be hard-pressed to raise to meet the En-
vironmental Protection Agencys 2025
federal deadline. So its asked for a re-
prieve.
Jeffersonville already has $94.8 mil-
lion in outstanding sewer debt that will
take until at least 2031 to pay off, accord-
ing to its five-year financial assessment.
And it cant raise the extra bond money
needed to finish the sewer project with-
out breaching bond covenants or invit-
ing a credit downgrade.
Some of the other big financial prob-
lems facing Jeffersonvilles plans in-
clude:
Its sewer rates are already among
the states highest at an average of
$67.27 for residential customers using
5,000 gallons per month and would
have to nearly triple to pay for the last
phase, making Jeffersonvilles sewer
rate by far the highest in the state, ac-
cording to the citys financial capability
assessment.
The states circuit breaker tax wastewater.
credit, which imposed limits on property
tax bills, has cut Jeffersonville tax col-
lections by 14 percent to 18 percent since
2012.
Its facing millions of dollars in un-
Sewage
Continued from Page 9A
downpours has performed well with odor
control, MSD officials said. But it also trig-
gered a local outcry.
Carolyn Hayes, a critic of the basin and
MSD, said she was concerned about odors,
and it was going to lower property val-
ues.
She said she still has those concerns.
At Beechwood Village, a small city next
to St. Matthews, MSD crews no longer
need to pump the contents of sewer lines
directly into a tributary of Beargrass
Creek to help prevent backups in hundreds
of homes during storms. New sewers end-
ed that practice and the bacteria spikes it
caused. MSD is now doing something simi-
lar in the Camp Taylor area off Poplar Lev-
el Road with contractors installing new
sewers and connections to 1,400 homes,
many haphazardly developed on the for-
mer World War I military base. The cost:
$24 million.
There were literally homes built on top
of sewers and in their basements were
manholes, said John Loechle, MSD engi-
neering director. Almost every home out
here has experienced a sanitary sewer
backup.
Help cant come fast enough, said Phil
Kavanaugh, a former president of the
Camp Taylor Neighborhood Association.
Weve been pushing this thing, trying to
get it forever. We hope that once all this is
done, it takes care of the problem (and) we
wont see the sewer caps blowing off, we
wont have the backups.
The next hurdle may be the agencys
biggest yet reducing its largest source
of overflows, some 2 billion to 6 billion gal-
lons per year according to what MSD has
reported to the EPA. They come from 98
combined sewer overflow locations along
Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River
where even a small rain can cause a spill.
MSD has four years to shoehorn seven
large storage basins into the older part of
Louisville and bore a 2.5-mile-long tunnel
along the Ohio River downtown, spending
hundreds of millions of additional dollars.
Earlier this year, the state and the EPA
fined MSD $118,500 for illegal spills in 2013
and 2014. Thats on top of more than $4 mil-
lion in other penalties issued under terms
of the consent decree from earlier years.
They still have a long way to go, Sayre
#KY#Metro#
expected capital upgrades to the system
to meet new federal phosphorus limits in
the treated discharge entering water-
ways.
Everyone wants to save the environ-
ment, but it costs to do that, Ashack
said. And the well is only so deep.
The EPA said Jeffersonville and other
communities in Southern Indiana have
to make improvements to its sewer sys-
tem to prevent improperly treated
wastewater from polluting the Ohio Riv-
er and other waterways in Southern Indi-
ana.
About 1,000 acres of downtown Jeffer-
sonville from Main Street to the city
limits with Clarksville have combined
sewers, pipes that collect excess rainwa-
ter, domestic sewage and industrial
and were built to accommodate a citys
Most of the time, the system carries
wastewater to sewage treatment plants.
But during heavy rains and snow melts,
these sewers overflow, allowing inade-
quately treated sewage to enter the Ohio
ILLUSTRATION BY BEKAH WHITE/GANNETT
said. Combined sewer overflows are
tricky.
But federal and state regulators are
generally pleased, even though both said
MSD was not very cooperative with them
initially, the CJ found.
At this point, they are complying,
Sayre said. They are very cooperative.
The Kentucky Division of Water over-
sees enforcement of the Clean Water Act
in the state. Its director, Peter Goodmann,
said hes pleased with the progress. They
are doing what they said they are going to
do.
The financial toll
MSD has tempered its rate increases
by borrowing money. But $1.8 billion in
debt has placed the agency under serious
financial pressure, with threats of lower
bond ratings because revenue is not keep-
ing pace with borrowing.
Even though MSD reports that its rates
are at the national average, some custom-
ers get frustrated.
If the federal government is going to
mandate this be done, they should give
(MSD) subsidies, said Larry Heck, who
described himself as retired and living on
a fixed income.
Every year I fall further behind, said
Phillip Hundly, who works at an industrial
purchasing agency. You are looking at
everything increasing at a higher rate
than your salary.
MSD has also had to work to shake dis-
trust following a scathing state audit in
2011 that found financial and ethical
lapses. Mayor Greg Fischer replaced the
organizations leadership, which has fol-
lowed the audits recommendations for
improvements.
Sayre said many utilities werent
charging customers enough to maintain
their systems properly. Thats sort of
how they got to where they are, he said.
Others acknowledged a price for clean
water. Louisville had no sewage treatment
until 1958 and is making up for a lot of lost
ground, said Bruce Scott, a longtime
Beargrass Creek advocate and a member
of an MSD advisory group.
If it means a few more dollars on my
MSD bill so ... they can practice Ironman
swims in the river, or somebody can take
their kids out on a kayak, or the dogs can
jump in, well, OK, said Curry, the triath-
lete.
Reach reporter James Bruggers at
(502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-
journal.com.
MATT STONE/CJ
New Albany has
spent more
than $50 million
on
improvements.
Rob Sartell,
New Albanys
utilities director,
holds up a
beaker of
treated water
that will be
released into
the Ohio River.
Microorganisms
help clean and
filter the water.
River and its tributaries.
The city has eliminated four of its
overflow sites and cut the volume of sew-
age it discharges by almost 50 percent,
according to EPA records. But seven
sites still overflow during heavy rains
and pollute waterways.
Ashack said the city is asking the EPA
for 10 more years to make improvements
to its system, including projects that
would help control overflow sites and
bring its system up to EPA standards.
The citys trying to work with the
EPA and state to give us more time to do
the things we say were going to do, Ash-
ack said. Well do them. We just need
more time to get them done.
Many combined sewage overflow
systems in Indiana are up to 70 years old
ing sick.
population at the time, said Paul Higgin-
botham, assistant commissioner for the
Indiana Department of Environmental
Managements Water Quality Office. Be-
fore the Clean Water Act was established
Big Rock is a popular place to cool off along Beargrass Creek in Cherokee Park, but sewage
system spills put the public at risk in a park where children have long liked to splash or wade
in the water, especially at the Big Rock.
Relief is on the way for
Cherokee Park sewage spills
JAMES BRUGGERS
@JBRUGGERS
Cherokee Park, one of Louisvilles
green jewels, remains under assault
from sewage.
Sewer manholes have spilled some
45 million gallons at 10 locations over
the last decade, leaving trails of toilet
paper and condoms on streets or in the
woods, a Courier-Journal analysis of
agency data shows.
And a single spill location annually
dumps on average 77 million gallons of
rain-diluted sewage into a tributary of
Beargrass Creek not far from the pop-
ular Beargrass Creek Greenway recre-
ational trail that leads into and out of
the park, Metropolitan Sewer District
records show.
Thats disgusting, said John Lish-
erman, who walks his two English shep-
herds daily in Cherokee Park. The
whole thing is that the infrastructure is
totally overwhelmed.
The spill points even have local
names, like condom corner or putrid
pass. The parks messy situation isnt
because MSD missed any cleanup
deadlines or is looking the other way.
Officials say they eliminated some 29
million gallons per year of overflows
into the creek as it enters the park near
Spring Drive in 2013 with major plumb-
ing changes that separated stormwater
and sewer lines for more than 900
homes.
The ongoing spills put the public at
risk in a park where children have long
liked to splash or wade in the water, es-
pecially at the Big Rock landmark.
Its an unfortunate reality, said
Tim Joice, a program director with
Kentucky Waterways Alliance, an ad-
vocacy group.
You think about the value that (the
creek) not only provides the communi-
ty but could provide the community if
it were cleaned up, he said.
in the 1970s, the EPA did not regulate dis-
charging sewage into waterways.
Jeffersonville and more than 100 oth-
er communities in Indiana entered into
agreements with the EPA that call for
long-term plans that typically include 15-
20 years of fixing sewer lines, expanding
wastewater treatment facilities and sub-
mitting monthly reports to the EPA.
New Albany fixed its sewer system in
the late 1990s to handle wastewater and
stormwater separately, said Rob Sartell,
the citys utilities director.
But like Jeffersonville, New Albanys
sewer system was built to accommodate
the citys population at the time, and as it
grew, the sewer system didnt grow with
it.
Combined with old pipes, this caused
sites where sewage was processed to
overflow during heavy rains as storm-
water would seep into sewage lines. Cur-
rently, the city has 16 of these sites.
To fix these sites, New Albany also en-
tered into an agreement with the EPA in
2002. Since then, the city has spent more
than $50 million on improvements in-
cluding a expanding its wastewater
treatment plant, installing new pipes and
upgrading lift stations, Sartell said. With
improvements come higher sewer rates,
with the citys most recent at 70 percent
over two years starting in 2010.
Higgenbotham said the both sanitary
and combined sewer systems are a prior-
ity to address because if not taken care
of, they can become a public health con-
cern.
If someone were to come in contact
with it, even though its diluted raw sew-
age, it increases peoples risk of becom-
Madeleine Winer is the Southern
Indiana communities reporter for the
Courier-Journal. Reach her at 502-582-
4087 or by email at mrwiner@courier-
journal.com.
MATT STONE/COURIER-JOURNAL
MSDs operations chief Brian
Bingham said the Spring Drive over-
flow is now spilling only stormwater
into the creek. But it can carry con-
taminants of its own from fertilizers,
dirty roads, dog and wildlife feces,
and other sources. And the volumes
the last two years have been huge 40
million gallons in 2014, and 44 million
gallons in 2015.
MSD in 1999 also took out another
combined sewer and storm water
overflow point in the heart of the
park, right along Scenic Loop, in a
project certified as complete in 2012,
officials said.
But a 2005 cleanup plan made a pri-
ority out of illegal overflows from
sewage-only pipes in places like
Beechwood Village and locations out-
side the Watterson Expressway.
Now with a lot of that work done,
MSD has turned its attention to the
problems of the combined sewer and
storm lines typical of older parts of
the city, and that will be good for Che-
rokee Park and its visitors, said MSD
chief engineer Angela Akridge.
A large storage basin planned for
near Grinstead Drive and Lexington
Road near the former Jim Porters bar
and dance hall will be large enough to
store rain and sewage to end spills at
the Beals Branch overflow during a
typical year, she said.
You have to take care of the com-
bined system first, so the pipes have
some relief and wont overflow as
much, Akridge said.
MSD officials said other diver-
sions and storage upstream from the
park will resolve all remaining sewer
line overflows in Cherokee park and
along the Middle Fork in 2023.
Thats as long as it doesnt rain too
much.
Reach reporter James Bruggers at
(502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@cou-
rier-journal.com.
 #KY#Metro# The Courier-Journal Sunday, October 23, 2016 9A

Sewage
Continued from Page 1A

In Southern Indiana, Jeffersonville is

seeking relief from EPA deadlines to mod-
ernize its sewer system, claiming it cant
afford to meet them after already spending
nearly $100 million.
Sewage spills are of particular concern
because Louisvilles waterfront is a popu-
lar gathering place for 2 million visitors a
year, with an increasing focus on water rec-
reation.
Beargrass Creek, Floyds Fork and other
waterways are also seeing increased recre-
ational demand. Yet Floyds Fork, Bear-
grass Creek, the Ohio River down from
Louisville and other local waterways still
fail to meet federal clean-water standards
in part because of all the sewage, which can
cause infections and stomach ailments.
There is strong agreement that for
Louisville to compete economically, it
needs a high quality of life, and that in-
cludes cleaner waterways for swimming,
boating and kayaking.
The Ohio River is our front door, and MICHAEL CLEVENGER/COURIER-JOURNAL
its important for people to be able to recre- One of many homes in the historic Camp Taylor neighborhood that is having new sewer lines installed as MSD replaces area infrastructure.
ate in the Ohio River, said Timothy J. Ha-
gerty, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd
and a representative of Greater Louisville
Inc., the metro chamber of commerce.
Things like Ironman and boat recreation,
all those things are important factors in be-
ing able to attract business and to attract
talent.
National crackdown
Louisville, Jeffersonville and New Alba-
ny are among many older cities across the
country that have been caught up in an EPA
enforcement initiative to get sewage out of
waters.
Although MSD is now unsure of some of
its own sewage reporting data after ques-
tions were raised by the CJ, the official rec-
ord shows that city sewers are still dump-
ing large amounts.
Curry, the triathlete, said the worst days
are after rain flushes untreated sewage
into the water. She and Misiewicz dont
swim then. Still, Curry said shed like the
river to be cleaner so I dont have to worry
about getting sick.
The bacteria-laden sewage remains a
black eye for the community.
Raw sewage causes a lot of difficul-
ties, said Dennis Sayre, an environmental
engineer with the EPA in Atlanta.
MSD has been praised for meeting its
deadlines and coming in under budget dur-
ing the first half of the sewer renovation
program, the CJ found. But several factors
are driving up costs:
$40 million in cost overruns linked to
MSDs giant Logan Street basin under con- ILLUSTRATION BY BEKAH WHITE/GANNETT
struction in Smoketown;
Higher prices from contractors be- Glossary:

KNEE ARTHRITIS PAIN?

cause of a shortage of bids that MSD
blames on a robust economy that gives con-
tractors other options;
and by its own account, MSD business
practices that sent bidders away, such as
putting too much risk on contractors and
having uneven project management.
We are trying to create a culture where
we want to be ... a good business partner,
with contractors, said Angela Akridge,
MSD chief engineer. The good news is we
are making improvements.
The overall project is so large that it is
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs):
These are outfall for pipes that carry both
sewage and stormwater. On dry days, a
weir in the pipe blocks sewage and sends it
for treatment. But during a storm, water
and sewage flow over the weir and into
the waterway. These overflows are not
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illegal but EPA wants MSD to capture and
treat 98 percent of their volume during a
typical weather year.
Sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs): These
spills come from pipes designed to carry

taking up nearly all of MSDs capital bud-
get; theres little money left over to pay for
other public safety measures, such as reno-
vating aging flood-protection equipment.
The numbers seem staggering.
In all, about 5.8 billion gallons spilled in
2015. Thats enough to fill Louisville Water
Co.s Crescent Hill Reservoir 53 times.
But the CJ review also shows real pro-
gress, at least for one of two kinds of spills
that have plagued the community the
ones engineers call sanitary sewer over-
flows. They are caused by crumbling,
leaky pipes that fill with water during
heavy rains. The other kind of spills are
called combined sewer overflows; they
spew from sewers that share sewage and
rain and are designed to overflow during
rain.
Sanitary sewer overflows send raw
sewage out of manholes onto streets and
yards and sometimes into peoples homes
during storms.
The records show that since 2005, MSD
has eliminated those spills at 21 percent of
the more than 600 locations where they
have occurred, effectively vanquishing 61
percent of a total of 1.9 billion gallons of
sanitary sewer overflows since then. Prob-
lems were fixed at another 34 percent of
those locations, accounting for 5 percent of
that spillage.
And despite big storms in 2015 that
caused overall spill numbers to balloon, the
sanitary sewer overflow volume that year
was among the smallest in a decade.
We know we are getting cleaner water
because we are having less sewer overflow
volume, said Brian Bingham, chief of op-
erations for MSD.
Engineering challenges
Like air traffic control for sewage, MSD
has developed a network of rain gauges
and underground valves to track incoming
bad weather and direct sewage to storage
pipes, preventing hundreds of millions of
gallons of overflows a year.
MSD expanded the capacity of its re-
gional treatment plants, including spend-
ing $97 million on a new pumping station at
its Derek Guthrie plant that required dig-
ging a hole large enough to swallow the
equivalent of a 13-story building.
It shut down the overwhelmed Jeffer-
(502) 219-2359
only sewage. Often crumbling and leaky,
they fill with water during heavy rains, a
problem made worse by basement sump
pumps. These spills are illegal and EPA
Proven Safe Highly Effective Pain Free Procedure No Down Time
wants them eliminated during rain that
dumps about 2 inches during a three-hour
cloudburst.
Consent decree: The result of a 2005
enforcement action by the state of Ken-
tucky and the EPA. MSD is on a court-
approved schedule to complete dozens of
projects and meet specific spill reduction
goals by 2024.
About the data:
Covered
The CJ obtained MSD databases for com- by
bined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer Most
overflows. SSO numbers are volume esti- Insuranc
mates based on observations, going back es,
to 2005. Including
For CSOs, MSD has been phasing in flow Medicare
!
monitors over the last decade at 98 remain-
ing locations. The agency uses a combina-
tion of a water elevation gauge and a
mathematical formula to calculate CSO
volumes. Only since 2012 have all 98 had
such monitoring. At Bodyworks Musculoskeletal Medicine, we are alleviating
After the CJ raised a question, MSD began knee arthritis pain with proven treatment options such as
checking looking its calculations. MSD
viscosupplementation and advanced regenerative medicine
officials say flow data for 25 of 98 locations
may overestimate spill volume. They say procedures including PRP and stem cell therapies. These
they may not have taken into account nonoperative, outpatient procedures are FDA compliant and
elevated backwater during rain. have been successfully used by countless people to eliminate
At eight of the 98 CSO locations, the calcu- their knee pain. Why not you?
lations may underestimate the volume. The
agency plans to work with regulators to
determine whether and how to fix any
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MSD is not questioning its sanitary sewer
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CJ-0000414103

sontown treatment plant that frequently

dumped partially treated wastewater into a Continued on Next Page
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