Lick Run Project

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD) is awaiting approval of its Lower Mill Creek solution for eliminating 1.78 billion gallons annually of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into the Mill Creek.

The remedy – a sustainable integrated watershed solution – is anticipated to be approved this spring by the U.S. EPA and other Federal and State Regulators.  The solution includes a suite of projects in four Lower Mill Creek watersheds:  Lick Run, Bloody Run, Kings Run and West Fork.

The largest of the projects is the Lick Run watershed project in the Cincinnati neighborhood of South Fairmount and portions of East and West Price Hill and Westwood.

The Lick Run project is a series of underground storm sewers, storm water detention basins and more naturalized aboveground waterways to transport storm water and natural drainage to the Mill Creek.  This project will eliminate an estimated 624 million gallons of CSOs into the Mill Creek during a typical year.

The central element of the Lick Run project is an urban waterway or valley conveyance project between Westwood and Queen City avenues, from the Queen City Bypass to the Mill Creek.

The urban waterway will include an aboveground, meandering channel with natural stone, pools and riffles, and a riparian edge, with an underground box conduit system to convey the larger storm events.  The waterway will also include wetlands and bio-swale/rain garden areas.  Construction is estimated to begin in 2016.

The Lick Run project is anticipated to clean up and repurpose about 30 acres of brownfields, vacant or otherwise underutilized land in South Fairmount and provide a catalyst for revitalization of other brownfield sites in the vicinity.

Click here for a new video on the Lick Run project and brownfields.

http://youtu.be/QdvgCJvJGWE

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