After six months of being notified, MSD finally repaired a sewage spill that was pushing out thousands of gallons of waste per day. That’s after a television station embarrassed them.
How does the paper headline the story? Like this:
Goose Creek sewage spill stopped by MSD
And then said a mere 7,000 gallons had leaked:
Brian Bingham, a senior engineer a MSD, said about 7,000 gallons spilled from an eight-inch sewer line before the spill was stopped at 3:12 p.m. MSD reported that the discharge began about 12:35 p.m.
What’s the real story that was severely watered down by the paper?
This:
The Metropolitan Sewer District stopped a major sewage spill in Little Goose Creek on Tuesday afternoon, yet the agency does not know how long a sewer line obstruction has been diverting 15,000 gallons of waste water per day into the creek.
“This is a sanitary sewer, it’s overflowing,” said MSD’s Brian Bingham at the site of the overflowing sewer cap off US-42 near I-71. “It looks like it’s been overflowing for a while.”
-SNIP-
Doug Ware of Louisville said he first discovered the spill while on a hike in November and reported it to MSD.
“They told me they were going to come out a few times, and they’ve never been out here,” Ware said.
-SNIP-
MSD said it can’t find any record of Ware contacting them. As soon as WHAS11 called, MSD immediately showed up, but couldn’t find the spill until a reporter led them to it.’
-SNIP-
Bingham estimates the spill has been dumping 15,000 gallons of waste water into the creek per day, yet said it was nearly impossible to determine if the spill has been active for days, weeks or months.
If Ware’s memory is correct, six months of a spill would equal more than two and a half million gallons of waste water in the creek since November.
Yep, just a little whitewashing of the story by conveniently neglecting to include all of that information and by just publishing the MSD spin. Oops.
Possibility City! Where transparency and compassion are number one.
7 responses so far ↓
1 jtt // Jun 6, 2012 at 10:31 am
Why I never make such complaints by phone, ALWAYS by email. Often you will get some type of an “automatic” response – such as “thanks for the contact” – I save those too. Caught more than one public entity saying they didn’t know about a problem … I also make sure I register the complaints with MetroCall, and save their response which provides a reference number for the complaint.
2 The Highlander // Jun 6, 2012 at 10:59 am
Little more than just ANOTHER example of the CJ’s coverage (meaning — ‘covering up’) for the ‘favored local administration’ WHEN IT SUITS THEIR PURPOSES OF PROTECTING THEIR FAVORITES. As I’ve repeatedly said — this has been going on for decades — the public has caught on to it — and the CJ’s like the fable of the ‘naked King in the parade.’ The King has no clothes on.
3 Debbie Linnig Michals // Jun 6, 2012 at 2:52 pm
I start every day by reading the Courier Journal but since no one is there anymore I have to supplement my local news with the “the ville voice.” You give so much more information than we can get anywhere else. Thank You!
4 lateshiftatthezoo // Jun 6, 2012 at 3:00 pm
I can’t believe all MSD could be facing is a $500 fine. seem like adding a little poo poo to a creek would at least be a $5000 fine
5 G'town Reader // Jun 6, 2012 at 7:26 pm
I thought contaminated leaks & spills were fined PER DAY – uh, not to the utility as much as to the hapless consumers.
6 Debbie Linnig Michals // Jun 6, 2012 at 8:01 pm
When one government agency fines another government agency it has little or no effect because it is not their money being used. If I wanted to get their attention I would do two things, get mason jars and fill with the goo. Put jar in clean clear baggie marked Goose Creek than sign up to speak at next MSD meeting. Give each MSD board member a jar to take home with a picture of all the little kids playing in the creek. Hope them personally accountable, they have the power to make the changes in policy! It will work I used something similar before on another issue. Help them to visually connect the pollutant to the people that are affected, us.
7 EL // Jun 8, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Shouldn’t those residents get their sewer fees rebated for those 6 months, you know, because their sewage wasn’t being treated.
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