The Green Infrastructure Top Overall Project Award was presented to the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) for its Rapid Run Park Bioswales Project on July 12, 2018 at the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies’ (NAFSMA) national conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About the Project:

In response to a USEPA consent decree that mandated construction of a 30-foot-diameter, 1.2-mile combined sewer tunnel, 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. Strand Associates, Inc.®was able to design a solution that would satisfy the needs of the decree.

Part of MSDGC’s Lick Run Project, Rapid Run Park Bioswale highlights the opportunities that green infrastructure offers. Native plants and soils were used to absorb, store and clean the water, including about 50 trees, 160 shrubs, and 35,000 plants assist in keeping close to 15 million gallons of stormwater out of MSDGC’s combined sewer system annually. As a whole, the Lick Run Project is estimated to eliminate almost 400 million gallons of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into the Mill Creek annually. The goal is to remove Cincinnati from the top five locations in the U.S. for CSOs.

According to NAFSMA, the communications contest is designed to highlight award winning communications and outreach programs, while also providing examples of work about flood awareness, pollution prevention, and environmental protection.