Green Infrastructure Solutions
Lick Run Sustainable CSO Abatement – MSD of Greater Cincinnati, OH
Size: 2,800 acre watershed,81,000 feet of new storm sewer, 5,600 feet of combined open-channel/box conduit system, 54 water quality BMPs, 8 stormwater detention basins, and 10,800 feet of stream restoration
Year: 2018 (planned)
In response to a USEPA consent decree that mandated the construction of a 30-foot-diameter, 1.2-mile combined sewer tunnel, an 84 mgd pumping station, and treatment (estimated to cost $414 million) to reduce 2 billion gallons of combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) desperately needed a more cost-effective alternative to reduce combined sewer overflows from the Lick Run watershed by 2018.
Employing an innovative and sustainable approach, our team (including Human Nature, Inc.) developed a wet-weather strategy estimated to cost less than half the original estimate, or $193 million. This innovative strategy
involves “daylighting” portions of the existing 19.5-foot-diameter combined sewer and restoring the original Lick Run open channel through a highly urbanized corridor, and is expected to reduce overflows by more than 60 percent. This approach also incorporates water quality BMPs, strategic sewer separation, and stream restoration, while providing improved environmental stewardship that integrates tangible community benefits.
Modeling indicates that this strategy will reduce CSO volumes by more than 1 billion gallons. This strategy supports MSDGC’s goals for urban revitalization by creating an amenity through the center of a blighted community on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio.
*Graphics provided by project partner, Human Nature, Inc.
