The city’s sewer system isn’t the only contributor to the local stench problem. But it’s one of them.
And this month officials with the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District are hosting two meetings to update residents on efforts to tame the stench.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and LPM News have covered the city’s frustrating fetor for years. Last year, resident complaints to the city’s Air Pollution Control District hit a six-year high. The complaints described smells like acetone, rotten eggs, burnt hair and dead bodies.
In 2023, more than half of the complaints submitted to the APCD came from the neighborhoods in and around the city's predominately Black West End.
The gross smells people experience come from multiple sources, with the sewer system managed by MSD and other industrial operations as major causes.
MSD officials are making improvements as part of an agreement with the APCD, which regulates air quality issues.
One big project has been to replace catch basins on neighborhood streets. The catch basins are covered by metal grates and are supposed to trap smells belowground.
Earlier this year, Tony Parrott, the executive director of Louisville’s Metropolitan Sewer District, said the agency has about $7 million worth of catch basin projects in the pipeline.
He said odor complaints “reduced dramatically” after crews replaced about 20 catch basins in the Park DuValle neighborhood last year.
MSD officials identified more than 200 basins to replace in Shawnee and California.
Residents can get an update on this work and ask questions at MSD’s upcoming meetings.
The first one is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at MSD’s 1600 West Hill Street office
The next is October 30, same time and location.
