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Louisville’s Own Big Dig Boondoggle?

 By Concerned Citizen

Louisville, the River City,  is ready to start its own version of a "Big Dig", only instead of a new road under a really big city (Boston) and for cars we are to get a tunnel under the river and not for cars but instead for of all things...water.  

A solicitation for bid was just placed by the Louisville Water Company for a tunnel under the Ohio River with an estimated cost of $28-32 M.  Not much when you are talking stadiums, but last I checked $30M is still a lot of money.  While there have been a few references in the CJ (our own version of SIC 'the paper of record'), to my knowledge there were no public meetings, no public debates, no independent review, or anything public for that matter.  Though this tunnel is novel for Louisville and common in Europe it is not common anywhere in the US except on a small scale. 

The Louisville Water Company is seeking bids on a 6100 foot long tunnel located well (no pun intended) under the river.  The stated purpose is to let the sand and gravel and rock and dirt and old trees and whatever that makeup the riverbed filter out the particulate that is in raw river water.  Water from such a tunnel looks crystal clear but is not safe to drink. 

The particulate in so called raw water is in a suspended state is removed by mechanical and chemical processing.  Presently the water is pumped from the Zorn Ave. Pumping Station to the Reservoir in St. Mathews.  Once there, suspended solids in the water are allowed to fall to the bottom of the reservoir where much but not all of it collects and is removed.  Next the water, cleaner but still full of suspended solids and bad bugs is treated chemically to make clear-to-the-eye-water but not safe-to-drink-water.  Next chlorine is added to kill a respectable number of bugs that could hurt us and then it is run through a sand filter to remove any sediment that managed to sneak by and then through a charcoal filter to strip the chlorine to avoid any nasty taste.  The water at some point gets a shot of fluoride and then is stored for delivery via a pipe to your home or business. 

Recall that 2 years ago LWC announced it would spend $950 M, more real money that is really ours, and not a single public meeting. 

It is debatable that we need a tunnel for water.  If there are no meetings, how can we know?  LWC is a most unusual company.  We own it but at the same time we have no control over it.  We pay for it and we invest in it but we have no say in how it is run.  We overpay water rates to our home and business every two months so that LWC can give $11-16M (sounds like real money to me) back not to us but to the city of Louisville for ?    (I will wait for an answer but can anyone say Music-in-the-Metro). 

Where is the justification for this "never-been-done-in-the-world" project?  Is it just another example of a ego-booster project that politicians and their controlled entities place as expensive plumage in their hats?  Can anyone say...remain street, Crescent Apartments, SoHo Condos, and on and on? 

LWC board members are appointed and accountable only to the Mayor.  Somehow I fail to see the "We The People" part in all this.  Wasn't it things like this that Got Napoleon in so much neck-threatening trouble? 

We The People clearly let one slip away from us with regards to LWC and we need to rein them in before they waste, I mean spend the rest of the $950M.  Question: After we spend $950M will we be an expert at anything related to such tunnels that we can export and earn a return on or will the only thing we could export be our ability to spend $950M?  How much of the $950M could be saved if LWC was really a public company?  If these guys want such feathers in their hats, perhaps we should show them that the head it is on is connected by a neck that history has proved is easily parted. 

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