Brings Sustainability into Focus Through Source Control
An MSD initiative called Communities of the Future is leading the development of an alternative vision for MSD’s largest CSOs – a vision that addresses the source of the problem (rainwater) and marries this source control strategy with community revitalization. MSD has designated the Lick Run as our first, fully integrated effort to develop a sustainable solution for the community based on source control.
South Fairmount was first settled in the early 1800s around the Lick Run, the primary stream in this watershed that drains to Mill Creek. As Cincinnati grew, roadways, buildings and sewer pipes gradually replaced streams and trees. The resulting increase in runoff led to increased frequency and intensity of flooding events and sewer overflows. Gradually, Mill Creek and tributaries like Lick Run became the dumping ground for human and industrial waste.
To move the waste away from the South Fairmount neighborhood and resolve this public health threat, several tributaries of Lick Run were enclosed within a large sewer pipe. That 19.5-foot-diameter pipe remains today, running a distance of 3,700 feet along buildings and streets. It connects to CSO #5, a relief outfall at the east end of Queen City Avenue that overflows into Mill Creek during heavy rains. Each year, about 1.7 billion gallons of combined sewage and stormwater overflow through this CSO. Of that total, only 25 percent is sewage; the rest comes from stormwater drains and what used to be natural stream flow.
Today, the South Fairmount area faces many challenges. People who live in this neighborhood bear one of the highest unemployment rates, lowest median household incomes, and highest school dropout rates in the region. The area also has a high volume of under-utilized lands, brownfields, and abandoned properties.
The Communities of the Future watershed solution for Lick Run includes the installation of over 75,000 linear feet of strategic storm sewers or reconstructed waterways along with retention basins for storage. Reforestation and downspout disconnections were identified as other strategic methods to apply in selected areas, resulting in a whole-systems approach to wet weather control. The resulting improvements can help to spur revitalization efforts and improve the quality of life within the neighborhood, while achieving the wet weather goal of reducing the amount of water that must be sent to a tunnel to be pumped and treated.
The pictures on this page illustrate source control and reconstructed waterway solutions that create community value in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and could be used for the Lick Run.