City of Louisville promises to take action against smelly sewers this summer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The summer smell is coming, and the city promises to take action, but it could take years and millions of dollars to fix.

If you don't like the odor coming from the sewer, you better hope for rain.

“And it is all over, it comes into the house,” said Amaris Connor, Louisville resident.

Connor is fed up with the smell coming from the sewer just a few yards from her front door. Every summer it’s the same thing — a foul, pungent smell that never goes away.

“I hardly ever have people over especially in the summer time,” Connor said.

She is not alone. Tuesday night, the Metro Sewer District (MSD) held the first of five listening sessions on the odor problem.

“Addressing odors is a high priority in this organization,” Tony Parrott, Executive Director of MSD, said.

The partial cure to eliminate the odor is rain. Water flushes residential sewage through the system to the wastewater treatment plants. Even with adequate rain, the city's sewer system is antiquated, some of it built in the 1800's and not designed to trap odor. The city has invested millions in odor control, however, all of the work done to control the odor is not in the budget.

“So we are gonna have to have some very detailed conversations with our board to figure out how we can get more of those odor control projects in our current plan," Parrott said.

Parrot said it will likely take three years and $40 million to fix the problem.

Back on Connor's street, the recent rain has tempered the smell for the time being. But, she knows the hot, dry months and the smells are coming. She said she would gladly pay a little more for pleasant air.

“I want them to do something about it. I don't know what they can do when you go out east in the east end, you don't really smell it, but down in the west end, you smell it and my mother lives in Shively and it comes that way," Connor said.

Unit then, Connor is hoping for rain.

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