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MSD Unveils $843M Sewer Overhaul to Protect Water Quality

Metropolitan Sewer District officials have unveiled a plan to overhaul the county’s aging sewer system.  The court-ordered plan is designed to reduce overflows of untreated sewage into local waterways.  The plan’s 64 different projects will update pipes in some places.  In other places, projects will create more storage tanks to keep waste water until the treatment plant can handle it.  MSD director Bud Schardein says that some areas outside the Watterson Expressway will be getting completely new systems.“A lot of those pipes date back to just after World War 2. So they’re showing their age.  They’re in areas with high groundwater areas, they’re in areas where folks have put in illicit connections to get rid of groundwater," Schardein says.And that means back ups and overflows have been a problem.  The entire suite of projects will take well over a decade and cost more than $800 million dollars.  That money will come from a gradual doubling of sewer rates over the next 16 years.  The public will have the opportunity to comment on the plan before it goes to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval.

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