MSD Greater Cincinnati's Wet Weather Consent Decree

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati in June 2006 submitted to the Government a comprehensive Wet Weather Improvement Program meeting the requirements set out in a 2003 Global Consent Decree. The Wet Weather Improvement Program (WWIP) represents a wide range of projects and district initiatives to address sanitary system capacity assurance and combined sewer overflow control. The WWIP was prepared pursuant to two consent decrees that Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati signed with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the Ohio EPA and the Ohio River Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), which require the City and County to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to address MSDGC's wet weather overflows.MSDGC has more than 200,000 individual connections to the collection system with over 3,000 miles of pipe covering an area of over 400 square miles. MSDGC operates seven major wastewater treatment plants and treats about 200 million gallons of wastewater a day. There are over 200 documented Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) locations and 80 Sanitary System Overflows (SSO) locations which discharge into local streams and ultimately to the Ohio River. The following paper presents an overview of the WWIP providing background and discussion on the development of the program and insight on ongoing negotiations with the Government as part of the review process.