St. Louis

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) embarked on a $5-7 Billion program of infrastructure/capital improvements to protect public health and comply with a federal consent decree to address combined and sanitary sewer overflows. MSD provides wastewater and stormwater operations for 1.4 million people in 524 square miles of the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County.MSD operates and maintains approximately 2,980 miles of stormwater, 4,750 miles of sanitary, and 1,920 miles of combined sewers; 194 sanitary and 66 combined sewer pump stations; and nine wastewater treatment facilities typically treating a total of 350 million gallons a day (MGD).  MSD had historically monitored the water quality information of streams and rivers within its service area. Stream discharge and water quality data have been collected at numerous locations since 1996 under a cooperative agreement between MSD and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and MSD conducted its own in-house monitoring of streams. These programs were intended to help MSD develop stormwater management strategies and improve the St. Louis County Storm Water Management Plan. The consent decree added the requirement of sampling to determine the effectiveness of sanitary and combined sewer overflow projects. MSD needed better high quality data collection services with the value-added benefit of a data management system capable of addressing key project objectives and management decisions.