Louisville/jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District history

By 1860, Louisville’s population had grown to more than 68,000, but the underground sewer system was less than two miles long.

In late 1906 the voters approved a $4 million bond issue to build new sewers; the work was to be overseen by a newly created Commissioners of Sewerage.

The commissioners went out of business in 1913, but the city used a windfall to continue building sewers.

The United States entered the war in the spring of 1917, and Camp Zachary Taylor was quickly built at the south edge of Louisville to train new troops.

The government in Louisville had no legal authority to address air pollution until 1945, when the Louisville Board of Aldermen passed a smoke ordinance.

In 1952, the Kentucky legislature passed KRS Chapter 77 authorizing the formation of county air pollution control districts.

In 1956, the APCD took part in a pioneering air pollution study that brought city, county, state, and federal agencies together to understand pollution in Rubbertown.

In 1966, the Kentucky Air Pollution Control Commission was created and adopted a regulation requiring that all discharges of material into the air must be reported and registered with the Commission.

In 1968, the state of Kentucky reaffirmed the authority of the Air Pollution Control Board to control air pollution in Jefferson County.

1970 was full of air pollution control milestones.

Starting in 1984, the VET program required annual emissions tests from all vehicles in Louisville, except construction and farm equipment.

In 1995, Louisville gas stations were required to sell reformulated gasoline to reduce smog-forming pollution from vehicle exhaust.