This Proposed Plan for a Metropolitan Sewer District is presented in the sincere belief that its adoption will enable the people of St. Louis and St. Louis County to solve critical sewer problems in a sound and equitable manner.

Large areas in both the City and the County have sanitary and storm sewers which lack the capacity to handle the load. Some thickly populated areas in the County have no way of disposing of sanitary sewage except through ditches, creeks, and septic tanks.

The health hazards resulting from this situation are not confined to either City or County. They are area-wide in scope, because disease-communicating insects and microbes recognize no political boundaries of county, city, or village.

Dr. J. Earl Smith, Health Commissioner of the City of St. Louis, has summarized the health hazards to our entire metropolitan area from inadequate sewer facilities in these terms:

"We must remember that the transmitters of disease do not recognize the City limits line. Flies, mosquitos, and other disease carriers may breed in the City or in the County and they may also contact disease organism either in the City or the County and then transmit to men and animals in either area.

"In summing up the disease potentials of improper disposal of sewage, experience has shown that inadequate sewerage presents a severe potential hazard of disease transmission; one which may come to us unexpectedly as an epidemic, as did the encephalitis epidemics which occurred here in 1933 and 1937.

"The problem has been shown to be one which cannot be solved within either City or County alone, but requires that it be treated as a whole. The City limits are but an imaginary line as far as disease and drainage are concerned."

Dr. Herbert H. Domke, St. Louis County Health Commissioner, in discussing this subject, recently stated:

"The inadequate human sewage collection and disposal systems in St. Louis County constitute by far the greatest sanitation problem in the County.  St. Louis County has many areas which contain health hazards due to improper sewage disposal as great as any in the United States. The condition as it exists today, with raw sewage and septic tank effluent in many places running openly in the streets, gutters, yards, streams, and ditches, makes for a definite potential health hazard to every resident and visitor to the County. While it is true that there is adequate sewage disposal in many localities in the County, the existence of the many problem areas is a danger to the entire County."

The reason our sewer problems cannot be handled by City or County separately, is simply that most of the industrial, commercial, and residential property in the County is on comparatively high ground and drains downhill through the City of St. Louis. Since the sewage water runs downhill, its flow must be properly channeled and controlled by one overall authority from its source in the County through various municipalities and through the City of St. Louis to its eventual outlet in the Mississippi River. Health authorities, contractors, engineers, and the staffs of both the City and County law departments are in accord that the sewer problems should be handled on a watershed basis rather than according to arbitrary boundaries of county, city, village, or sewer district.

As property is built up, roofs, streets, sidewalks, and parking areas catch and speed into the sewers all the rainfall previously allowed to soak into the ground.  Thus all new construction work puts additional burdens on the sewage and drainage facilities.

The construction of the so-called "Small Arms Plant" in North St. Louis is a typical example of the difficulties that can arise from such a change of use. Of the 271 acres of that land used by the Government, over 200 acres have been covered by buildings and paved areas during the last 12 years. Thus all rain falling on these buildings and parking areas is immediately diverted to one of St. Louis' largest sewers known as the Harlem-Baden Sewer, increasing its load. Engineers testified that 

"Construction of the relief facilities in the Harlem-Baden watersheds, especially in the low areas within the City of St. Louis, is one of extreme urgency, as flooding of property and sizable damages occur whenever the rainfall exceeds the capacities of the sewers. In these low areas, flooding of basements with damage to various types of electrical equipment, now in common use, is of relatively frequent occurrence."

Largely because of the need to correct conditions reported by medical authorities charged with the duty of studying and protecting public health in the City and the County, and because of the natural drainage of much of St. Louis County through City of St. Louis sewers, a Joint Interim Committee consisting of representative forward-looking citizens of both the City and County was appointed in 1951. This body held public hearings, studied the matter carefully, and recommended that the City of St. Louis and the County of St. Louis proceed with steps to provide an integrated sewer system.

In accordance with that report, petitions for the establishment of a bipartisan Board of Freeholders were signed by thousands of residents of the City and County. As a result, nine City residents were appointed by officials of St. Louis, nine County residents were appointed by authorities of St. Louis County, and a nineteenth member residing in outstate Missouri was appointed by the Governor. This Board of Freeholders held 27 open meetings and over 100 separate committee meetings and made personal inspections of sewage facilities in the City and County. The Board was aided in its study and research by its legal counsel, Mr. Robert E. Blake, and by its research consultant, Dr. Victor D. Brannon of the Governmental Research Institute.

In the course of their investigations and deliberations, the Freeholders studied local conditions and the needs of the City and the County. They found that piecemeal efforts to provide adequate sewers in the County have failed because municipalities and sewer districts individually cover less than a whole watershed and because in many cases they lack the financial resources to do the job. They also found that the industrial expansion of the entire St. Louis Area is being hampered by inadequate sewers, and that continued development of St. Louis County will make the sewer problem even more critical to both City and County in the future unless a concerted area-wide program for its solution is adopted.

The Freeholders were told that, because of overflooded sewers, two youths were drowned several years ago in the vicinity of Union Avenue and Natural Bridge Road. They were advised that the area along Ashland Avenue, between Union Boulevard and Clara Avenue, is one of the most frequently flooded areas in the City. It has been estimated by City officials that the three floods which occurred in 1946 and 1947 caused property damage in this area of about $1,500,000. At least ten other areas within the City suffered severely from these same floods and the resulting damages amounted to about $9,000,000.

The Freeholders studied the metropolitan sewer districts now established in many localities, notably Louisville, Boston, Chicago, Hartford, and Newark, and found that in these localities sewer problems are successfully handled on an area-wide, watershed basis.

Taking all these matters into consideration, the Board of Freeholders drafted and recommends this Plan, which in its essence creates a single Metropolitan Sewer District consisting of the entire City of St. Louis and a large portion of St. Louis County, roughly extending to or beyond Lindbergh Rd since most of that part of the County drains through the City. In addition, the Coldwater Creek Watershed, consisting of land near Lambert Field now being so rapidly developed, is included in the District. Coldwater Creek must be freed from contamination since its waters flow into the Missouri River and thence into the Mississippi River above the City's Chain of Rocks Water Plant where the City gets much of its water supply. This one Metropolitan Sewer District is given necessary powers to build, operate, and maintain all sewer facilities within its area.

Your Board of Freeholders scheduled four City and four County public hearings on this proposed Plan, for the purpose of more fully advising the people of the City and the County of the health hazards now existing and the absolute geographical necessity of handling sanitary sewage and storm water problems on a "water runs down hill" basis.

At these public hearings, your Board of Freeholders explained the powers, duties, and responsibilities granted to the proposed Metropolitan Sewer District and the methods whereby such overall district can cope with many sewer problems and eliminate the health hazards now existing.

Many valuable suggestions were made by the people who attended the public hearings and by the civic organizations which studied the preliminary draft of the Plan. As a result of these suggestions, more than 50 changes and improvements were made in the Plan before it was finally approved by the Board of Freeholders.

For the most part, the message stated above, which was contained in the Plan approved by voters in February 1954, rings as true today as it did then. Still St. Louis City and County have changed, and the District must also adjust to those changes in order to continue protecting and safeguarding the citizens of the area and the waters flowing through and around it.

It is for this reason that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Board of Trustees has proposed amendments to the Plan of the District. These amendments will provide the District with the necessary tools to continue providing quality service and to address additional water quality and stormwater needs that exist or may develop in the years ahead.

The District has functioned well since its creation. Many of the wastewater problems alluded to in the 1954 Plan have been addressed. Yet there are new challenges due to changes in the law, a more diverse and larger population and enhanced technology.

Changes in existing law have probably impacted the District most. In 1972, the United States Congress substantially revised the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the single most important water environmental legislation ever passed. The law requires the elimination of pollutants entering the nation's waterways except as authorized by a permit. This single law, along with subsequent amendments to it, greatly changed what agencies like the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District must do to enhance water quality. While the act previously provided for federal construction grants, it now provides loans under the State Revolving Loan Fund program to build required massive improvements to the sewer system. The Act establishes standards for the operation and effectiveness of the treatment of wastewater, which are typically contained in a permit. Permit compliance and the infrastructure costs necessary to achieve and demonstrate compliance have and continue to add to the cost of providing this service to the public.

The area covered by the District has more than doubled since the Plan's passage. A 1977 annexation election brought into the District's boundaries nearly all the remaining portions of St. Louis County. This area was experiencing the same problems that prompted voters in 1954 to approve the Plan of the District. Residents in the newly annexed area also wanted a coordinated, comprehensive approach to resolving these problems.

As the St. Louis region has continued to prosper and grow, drainage issues are now at the forefront. Additional emphasis has been placed on addressing stormwater runoff management in the area served by the District. The District must have the mechanisms available to address these concerns.

The Plan amendments proposed to voters will provide the District with more options in meeting its needs. These proposals will enhance the District's ability to provide the residents and businesses with quality service.