What's the Solution?
The solution is Project Groundwork, one of the largest public works projects in the history of our community.
This multi-year initiative is comprised of hundreds of sewer improvement and storm water control projects across our area.
The projects will provide community benefits through sustainable solutions designed to:
- Reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into local rivers and streams;
- Eliminate sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) in a typical year;
- Eliminate sewage backups into basements caused by MSD's sewer system;
- Reduce sewage debris and sewage odors in local waterways and make streams more pleasant after heavy rains.
MSD seeks to reduce or eliminate sewage overflows by using three different strategies:
- Storage and conveyance: constructing larger sewers to transport wastewater to treatment plants or large underground storage tunnels to capture excess wastewater.
- Product Control: upgrading existing treatment plants to handle more wastewater or constructing enhanced high-rate treatment facilities to treat flows at the CSO outfall prior to discharge.
- Source control: solutions that control the source of the overflow problem: stormwater. These solutions include controlling runoff from hillsides, removing streams from combined sewer system intakes, installing storm water retention basins and using other controls such as pervious pavement or rainwater harvesting systems that prevent or delay stormwater from reaching combined sewers.
Project Groundwork will be conducted in two phases: Phase 1 (2009-2018) and Phase 2 (after 2018).
Phase 1 (2009-2018)
Phase 1 projects, estimated to cost about $1.145 billion (in 2006 dollars), must be completed by or before 2018. Phase 1 projects and their schedules are stipulated in a "wet weather plan," which was formally approved by the U.S. District Court for Southwest Ohio in August 2010.
Phase 1 is comprised of :
- 38 construction projects, including seven bundles and the
Lower Mill Creek Partial Remedy. Phase 1 sewer infrastructure
improvements will take place in Delhi, Green, Springfield, and
Symmes townships and the cities of Cheviot, Cincinnati and
Reading.
- A "bundle" is a grouping of multiple construction projects within the same watershed or area.
- The Lower Mill Creek Partial Remedy includes a short, deep tunnel and an Enhanced High-Rate Treatment Facility that would handle excess flows from combined sewers in the Lower Mill Creek area. MSD is currently researching more sustainable alternatives or supplements to the tunnel.
- A 3-year action plan (2009-2011) for the Lower Mill Creek area, located to the north and northwest of downtown Cincinnati, to resolve two billion gallons of combined sewer overflows each year. The remedy listed is a deep tunnel, but MSD is researching more sustainable solutions. See the Sustainable Solutions sidebar under Community Benefits.
- Special projects called "allowances" to address, reduce, and/or eliminate overflows, including MSD's Sustainable Infrastructure (Green) Program and the SBU program, among others.
- Planning work for specific projects to be completed in Phase 2.
Phase 1 projects will be complemented by Project Groundwork asset management and assessment sewer projects.
For a list of the Phase 1 projects, please click here.
For a complete list of Phase 1 and other sewer construction projects in your neighborhood, please visit the Projects page.
Phase 2 (after 2018)
Phase 2, estimated to cost about $2.1 billion (in 2006 dollars), is comprised of about 256 construction projects across Hamilton County.
The Phase 2 projects are stipulated in a "wet weather plan," which was formally approved by the U.S. District Court for Southwest Ohio in August 2010.
The project schedule for Phase 2 has not yet been developed. It must be submitted to the U.S. and Ohio EPAs by 2017 for approval.
Planning and design of these projects may occur prior to the 2017 schedule submittal.
Phase 2 projects will be complemented by Project Groundwork Asset Management and Assessment Sewer projects.
