The stench of rotten eggs is so thick sometimes that Yvette Johnson said she wears a mask inside her Park DuValle home.
Other times, the smell wakes her up at night.
She said she closes her toilets and stuffs a towel in the sink “so things won’t escape into the air.”
“I don't even try to burn incense to cover it up, because I think that would make it even worse,” she said. “I have an air filter in my house. So I'm doing all I can to breathe clean air.”
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and LPM News have covered the city’s lingering “stink” for years. The gross smells people experience come from multiple sources, with the sewer system managed by the Metropolitan Sewer District and other industrial operations as major causes.
MSD is hosting a series of public meetings this year to update residents on odor control projects. The first was this week at the agency’s new office in Park Hill.
Tony Parrott, the executive director of Louisville’s Metropolitan Sewer District, said the agency is making headway on a lot of projects aimed at managing the odors that plague the city. Sewer crews are inspecting and replacing several neighborhoods’ catch basins, which people can spot on the streets by the metal grates that shield them, to ensure they actually trap bad smells belowground.
The sewer district has an estimated $7 million worth of catch basin projects in the pipeline, per Parrott’s presentation Tuesday.
Park DuValle, where Yvette Johnson lives, has long been plagued by odors. But catch basin repairs helped, Parrott said. The agency fixed about 20 basins last year.
“Once we completed those repairs, we saw the odor complaints in that area reduced dramatically,” Parrott said.
Parrott detailed similar projects underway in two other west Louisville neighborhoods:
- In California, MSD inspected over 900 catch basins to see how many needed fixing and has since replaced 55 basins, with another 29 to go.
- In Shawnee, their team inspected more than 1,100 catch basins and replaced 20 so far, with 154 more to go.
Upcoming catch basin projects for the Chickasaw and Taylor Berry neighborhoods are slated for completion by the end of this year, Parrott said. They’ve also targeted specific roads, recently completing repairs on East Market Street and setting plans for similar work on West Main Street.
Future catch basin inspections also are in the works for Algonquin, Beechmont, the Central Business District, Portland and south Louisville.
MSD faced regulatory action by the local Air Pollution Control District several years ago after it didn’t sufficiently control odors coming from catch basins and its Morris Forman operation, which affected the Chickasaw, California and Park DuValle neighborhoods.
The sewer district has undertaken a variety of projects, including replacing catch basins in those and other neighborhoods, as part of a broader agreement with APCD aimed at improving its management of bad odors.
MSD publicly posts reports on odor complaints it handles each month. KyCIR reviewed the reports for February and March 2025 to see which ZIP codes had the most complaints submitted.
The ZIP code with the most olfactory issues reported, by far, was 40203, with more than 40 complaints. The next two most-common ZIP codes were 40272 and 40204.
Parrott indicated he expects to see a spike in complaints as summer approaches, when hot weather and dry spells typically stir up worse smells.
In addition to fixing catch basins, MSD is also working on improvements at various facilities it runs.
A major focus is its Morris Forman operation on Algonquin Parkway. Parrott said they’re nearly done replacing sedimentation basins and are on track to complete a new, $240 million biosolids facility in 2028.
MSD is also about 90% done installing a new odor control system at its Southwest Pump Station, he said.
Johnson, the Park Duvalle resident, said she found Tuesday’s meeting helpful, particularly the information about MSD’s odor control projects.
“They are very aware of the odor that we smell, and they're doing something to try to minimize it,” she said. “It would never be eliminated, but minimizing it is at least something.”
MSD’s other “clAIRity” meetings for this year are scheduled for June 24, Aug. 28, Oct. 14 and Oct. 30.
