‘Beyond ridiculous’: After resident complaints, MSD offers long-term plan to fix Louisville’s stink

Flushing sewer lines, replacing catch basins and replacing an old treatment facility with a new one for central Louisville are all part of the Metropolitan Sewer District’s multi-year plan to address the city’s stink.

For decades, Louisville residents have been inundated with foul smells from sewer drains, a pork production facility near downtown and pollutive industries in an area dubbed Rubbertown. And people living in the historically Black neighborhoods of west Louisville have been impacted the most. In the coming years, MSD will spend more than $200 million to address some of the sources of the odor.

At a press conference this week, MSD CEO Tony Parrott said the agency is trying to respond to residents’ complaints, the vast majority of which come from neighborhoods within the boundaries of the old City of Louisville.

“We are investing, over the next two fiscal years, over $50 million in capital projects and we are doubling down on our operations and assigning additional staff to oversee our odor strategy and odor mitigation,” Parrott said.

The plan outlined by Parrott is part of MSD’s five- and 10-year plans, meaning it may be a while before the benefits of the odor mitigation effort is fully realized. But he said MSD is committed to improving quality of life for residents whose lives can be disrupted by the stench.

MSD will hold its next public meeting to discuss odor control on Aug. 27 at the Shawnee Public Library.

Addressing catch basins and more

Ashia Powell knows firsthand how bad the smells can get.

On some days, the odor emanating from the sewer grate in front of Powell’s home in Park DuValle was strong enough to wake her up in the middle of the night. She described it as being similar to rotten eggs.

“And it’s still there in the morning,” she said. “It’s in your car. It’s in your house. I’ve burned so many candles, it’s beyond ridiculous.”

Powell said odors, and the candles and incense she used to try to mask the smell, sometimes gave her headaches and exacerbated her asthma. Things had gotten so bad in recent years that she thought about moving.

“I love where I live,” she said. “I love that it’s close to my church. I love being in the West End, but that smell was really, really driving me close to moving.”

Powell spoke to the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in April about the odor issues in her neighborhood . She told KyCIR she filed six odor complaints last year through MSD and the Smell My City app . But in an interview this week she said she hasn’t had to report any bad smells in the past month and a half.

The relief Powell has been getting from the waft of foul air may be due to the amount of rain Louisville’s received so far this summer. The smells from sewer vents and catch basins tend to get worse with dry weather, because rainfall flushes out the city’s combined storm water-waste water system.

The decrease in odor events could also be because MSD recently replaced 18 sewer catch basins, which are part of the municipal drainage system, in the Park Duvalle neighborhood. All of those basins were either broken or missing a trap that can reduce bad smells.

By the end of next year, MSD plans to replace 422 catch basins across five neighborhoods in west Louisville: Park DuValle, California, Shawnee, Chickasaw and Taylor Berry. The agency has already replaced 15 basins in California as part of the first phase of the project in that neighborhood.

Parrott said MSD also has plans to address sewer odor in the Russell neighborhood, although that project is on a longer timeline. That’s because MSD has identified 747 catch basins that need work there.

“The Russell area is going to be phased, just because of the magnitude of the lift there, financially,” he said. “It’s in our five-year capital plan to be able to phase those out.”

In addition to foul smells, residents have also complained about MSD’s response time. Residents say they’re frustrated because sometimes, by the time MSD responds to a report, the smell isn’t as strong as it was when they made the report or has disappeared altogether.

MSD spokesperson Sheryl Lauder told LPM News this week that their goal is to respond to complaints within 24 hours. It may take longer during extended periods of hot and dry weather, when reports increase, she said.

“We do have folks who work weekends and extended weekdays to respond to odor complaints during times of high complaints,” Lauder said in a statement. “Additionally, we have started to call folks back to tell them what we found [or] did.”

Other improvements in the works

In addition to catch basin replacements, MSD has also ramped up its other odor mitigation efforts.

Parrott said the agency is flushing and deodorizing catch basins more frequently and replacing missing or damaged basin plugs. MSD is also adjusting chemical feeds at pump stations and treatment facilities to reduce the stench.

One of MSD’s largest and most costly projects right now is replacing the biosolids processing facility at its Morris Forman Water Quality Treatment Center, which processes sewage from all of the West End, central Louisville and much of northeast Jefferson County. The project, expected to cost roughly $255 million, is on track to be completed sometime in mid-2026.

Parrott said upgrading the treatment center near Southwestern Parkway and Gibson Lane into a state-of-the-art facility will help to control how much odor drifts into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Asked by reporters whether all of these measures will mean higher bills for homeowners, he said MSD is doing as much as it can to reduce the cost to ratepayers. Parrot said they are going after grants, low-interest loans and alternative financing options.

“Without grants, which is free money, unfortunately the local rate base is impacted,” Parrott said.

He added that the majority of upgrades MSD will make in the coming years, which will be reflected on customer bills, are regulatory requirements from the federal government, meaning the agency has to do them.

This story has been updated to clarify MSD is building a new treatment facility in place of one it previously tore down.