Louisville's sewage tunnels

Some cities along the Ohio River have combined sewage and stormwater systems. When there's a heavy rain, sewers are overwhelmed and water flows untreated into the river.

The EPA doesn't like that, as you might expect.

In Louisville, the answer is drilling tunnels under the city and the river to store the overflow until it can be pumped back up and treated.

Sounds kind of drastic, but it's probably either that or spend billions on a new collector system that prevents stormwater and what is politely called wastewater from ever mingling in the first place.

(This story brought back memories of the early and mid 1980s. In 1984 and 1985, I claimed the unofficial world sewer writing championship. I was covering Lawrence County, Ohio, for the Huntington WV paper at the time, and it seemed that every town along the river needed major improvements to its collection and treatment systems. But that's an entry for another day.).