Hamilton County public hearing spotlights health risks and resident cost concerns on Kenwood Hills sewer plan

Hamilton County Commission Board President Alicia Reese opened a public hearing in Madeira on the proposed Kenwood Hills local sewer project and asked the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) and Hamilton County Public Health to present the plan and answer homeowner questions.

MSD project representative Lauren DeGarcia summarized the scope and finances of the petition-driven project, saying the district would build roughly 9,500 feet of 8-inch gravity sewer and about 3,300 feet of low-pressure force main, install 160 laterals and that an estimated 59 properties would likely need grinder pumps. She told residents the total estimated project cost is "approximately $12,400,000," with MSD funding about 85% (about $10.5 million) and the benefited property owners assessed no more than $12,000 each for public improvements.

Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said the district considers Kenwood Hills a top priority because of the neighborhood’s density of failing home sewage treatment systems (HSTS). "This is one of the most important projects that we are working on," Kesterman said, and Felicia Erwin, the health district’s director of water quality, told the board about the neighborhood’s systems: "98% of these systems are discharging," she said, and many of those connections run into stormwater infrastructure. Erwin described sampling and photographs showing effluent reaching creeks and said the systems often cannot meet Clean Water Act-era water quality standards.

That public-health framing drove both support…