Kentucky Investigation Reporting Center (https://kycir.org/2021/08/10/in-west-end-sewer-odors-are-a-long-standing-problem/)
MSD utility worker James Krebs is cleaning the 42nd Street catchment tank.
Whenever Terekal was with her at her home in Duval Park, she was worried about the smell that might be emitted from the street.
The smell is offensive and embarrassing-like sewage or feces, chemical smells or rotten eggs. Sometimes they are so strong that they wake her up in the middle of the night.
Every time, she dutifully complained to the city government, hoping to change.
"I have to deal with my quality of life," Carl said. "It's a pity that I might have to move out of this neighborhood-not necessarily for crime, but for air quality."
The Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District acknowledged that the sewer of Park DuValle and many communities in the West Side of Louisville have odor problems. Six years of data show that MSD has received the most odor complaints — more than 400 — from the 40211 postal code, which includes the Park DuValle and Chickasaw communities, as well as parts of Russell.
Almost all other high complaint zip codes are located in the West End, which is mainly black, historically underserved by the city, and is closest to the state’s oldest and largest sewage treatment plant.
Congressman John Yarmuth recently announced that Congress has initially approved a federal grant of more than $5 million for the Louisville project, of which $480,000 will be used to solve the odor problem in the sewers of the Park DuValle community.
But money cannot be guaranteed, and demand is not new. The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District has ordered MSD to alleviate Park DuValle sewer problems.
MSD officials said that even without federal funding, they will eventually find a way to complete the work. They say that the smell of the sewer is inconvenient, but not dangerous. This is no comfort to Carl.
"Even if it's just offensive, I don't want it to appear in my backyard," Carl said.
The sewers in the Park DuValle area range from 100 to 20 years, but whenever they are built, they merge into the combined sewer system that once drained into the Ohio River. The confluence sewer system is mainly located within I-264 leading to the Ohio River. This includes all West End and other communities such as the Cherokee Triangle, Highlands, and Clifton. Now, the system transports wastewater and rainwater to the water treatment plant through the same pipeline.
Approximately two-thirds of the county's waste is transported by gravity to the Morris Forman Water Treatment Center on Algonquin Parkway, two miles east of Carr's house in Park DuValle.
“[Waste] gets bigger and slower as it gets closer to the factory,” said Rachael Hamilton, the interim director of the Metro Air Pollution Control District, which monitors air quality standards and residents’ complaints.
Hamilton called the smell of the West End an environmental justice issue.
"This is really a trace of the red line in this community," Hamilton said.
Hamilton said that when stagnant waste is combined with dry weather, the smell can be very strong. A similar incident in 2019 prompted the board of directors to issue a legally binding and agreed order to MSD to correct the problem.
When MSD investigated Park DuValle's problems, they inspected 198 sumps. More than half of the people lack the necessary equipment to seal the smell.
MSD chief operating officer Brian Bingham (Brian Bingham) said that the repair of these cisterns at Park DuValle was their first major move to complete the terms of the order.
Bingham said the cost of repairing the sump ranges from $1,500 to $20,000, depending on what needs to be done. Although the current focus of this project is on the West Side, he said that according to MSD, this is not the only place where these problems exist.
"Not all of these problems occur in West Louisville," Bingham said. "This problem exists to some extent in the entire joint sewer system, just as it exists in every joint sewer system and every joint sewer city in the country."
From 2015 to 2020, of the nearly 3,000 odor complaints, more than one-third came from postcodes in the West End.
The catch basin trap is similar to a J-shaped pipe under a household sink, which can hold water to reduce odor. Most areas of Park DuValle have such equipment failures. “On days when we have a lot of heat and there is no rain, the water will stagnate,” said James Krebs, an MSD utility worker who cleans the sump. "All the organic materials and people cut grass, where the leaves begin to decompose and produce odors. We have received many odor complaints."
Last month, Krebs operated a small crane boom on 42nd Street to clean a catch basin with odor complaints. Workers enter the sewer system through brown rusty metal sewers. Below these drains are catch basins—and waste and garbage. The rubbish is pushed into the sewer and piles up on the top of the grate. The sludge under the street can make the whole block smell.
Garbage piled up in the sewer on 42nd Street
Krebs' crane boom extends down into the sump, scoops out organic matter and garbage, and then puts it into a small dump truck.
Krebs sprinkled deodorant particles into the sewer.
The whole effort took Krebs about 15 minutes.
In the absence of a better word, dump trucks transport the garbage to a facility in MSD, where a larger truck transports it to the dump.
This process will be repeated thousands of times as MSD's US$6 million project to solve the odor problem in the West End sewers begins. MSD has identified five priority communities: Park DuValle, Shawnee, California, Chickasaw and Taylor Berry.
MSD Chief Operating Officer Bingham stated that their plans for Park DuValle are larger than previous projects. Bingham said that many of their other projects have embedded odor mitigation measures, so it is difficult to calculate the investment relatively, but he estimates that they have spent about $2 million in the county each year on odor mitigation.
MSD estimates that Park DuValle's work alone will cost nearly $1 million, including master planning and communication work.
Residents say there are many things to do. Jimmy Henderson, Sr. grew up in Park DuValle.
"As far as I know, you know, I remember my parents talked about this," he said of the smell.
It's not just the sewers-he said that the rubber town factory in the southwest has the smell of sewage and chemical smells. In general, he said that people lack respect for this part of the town-so he appreciates MSD's priority on the West End.
"I know, in fact, they spent a lot of money trying to correct some of these problems," Henderson said.
Carr said that she and her neighbors in Park DuValle hope that any work they do will improve air quality. She bought air filters, essential oils, and anything she thought was helpful.
"I don't want them to get the money, and then they did all these things, and we still smell the smell we smell and don't understand how what they did to benefit us," she said.
Lily Burris is a summer researcher for WFPL and KyCIR. She is a senior at Western Kentucky University.
Correction: MSD must report annually on the progress of resolving the Park DuValle sewer. The previous version of this story gave an incorrect deadline for completing the work; there is no deadline.
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Author: Lily Burris, Kentucky Investigative Reporting Center August 10, 2021
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