Tagged: Metropolitan Sewer District

Unfortunately, sewer overflows aren’t really anything out of the ordinary in Louisville. There were 400 times in 2010 and 2011 when untreated waste flowed illegally into area waterways: more than 100 million gallons of sewage. Now the Metropolitan Sewer District has been fined $161,000 by state and federal environmental regulators.

About 24,000 gallons of untreated sewage was released this morning into the South Fork of Beargrass Creek.

The Metropolitan Sewer District reported a blockage in the sewer line around 11:00am. The waste would normally been diverted to the treatment plant, but the obstruction allowed the sewage to back up and rise over the dam around where Beargrass Creek crosses Lexington Road and Baxter Avenue.

The problem was fixed after about an hour and a half, but it’s recommended that the public avoid contact with the water for the next 48 hours.

This weekend's rain has caused some major problems for Louisville's sewer system.

There were about three inches of rain Saturday evening and Sunday, causing overflows and backups all over Jefferson County. But the biggest problem is probably an equipment malfunction that leaked 95 million gallons of stormwater and waste into waterways.

From MSD:

A year after a scathing audit exposed numerous managerial problems, Louisville’s Metropolitan Sewer District has finished addressing the deficiencies. Mayor Greg Fischer has also appointed Louisville Water CEO Greg Heitzman as permanent executive director of the agency.