SD1 history

In March of 1951, SD1 awarded a contract in the amount of $360,207.80 for the construction of Section A of a planned $6 million sanitary sewer system in Northern Kentucky.

On January of 1952, Anderson resigned from the Board to become SD1’s first general manager.

On July 1, 1954, approximately 39,000 customers in Campbell and Kenton counties started paying sanitary sewer fees to fund the construction and maintenance of the $7.6 million project.

Within a year, the local Circuit Court in June 1955 enjoined further operation of the plant until the issue could be resolved.

The plant remained closed while necessary odor-reducing equipment was installed, and on November 17, 1956, it was allowed to reopen pending a state inspection.

The only component used from the old P6 model was the old and reliable V-8 engine which was a further development of the 1961 aluminium Buick engine, also known in the States as the Aluminum Fireball V8. (Yes they named it Aluminum not Aluminium).

Peter Wilks had succeeded his uncle Maurice as Rover Technical Director in 1964 and, following the formation of British Leyland, Spen King, one of the P6 design team, nephew of Maurice and Spencer Wilks and cousin of Peter, was dispatched to become Technical Director of Triumph at Canley.

He would be replaced by Paul W. Brown (not to be confused with Cincinnati Bengals founder Paul E. Brown), who became general manager on July 1, 1965.

Initial briefing for a P6 replacement, codenamed P10, began at Solihull in March 1969.

Work by Rover began in earnest following the launch of the Range Rover in March 1970, and the new car rapidly took shape.

Looking at the development programme, it would now appear that the definitive SD1 shape was complete by December 1971 and yet it would take a further eighteen months for the styling to be finally signed off by the BL Board.

Having forced Rover and Triumph to work together to produce the SD1 and SD2, British Leyland decided to formalise the arrangement and officially merge the two firms in March 1972 as Rover-Triumph under the chairmanship of Sir George Farmer.

In May 1973 Sir George Farmer retired from Rover-Triumph and BLMC to be replaced by Bill Davis, a former BMC man, as Managing Director of Rover-Triumph.

Although like Jaguar, Rover was profitable, it was saddled to the lame Austin-Morris division, which ultimately brought the whole British Leyland edifice crashing down in flames in December 1974.

Construction on the $68 million Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant began on August 22, 1975.

In 1976, David Bache told the British Leyland Mirror, the in-house newspaper, about the SD1’s style: ‘The word “elegant” describes the styling philosophy behind the new Rover.

By February 1977, a series of stoppages at the Castle Bromwich body plant brought SD1 production to a halt along with several other British Leyland cars.

In early 1978, following the arrival of Michael Edwardes, Derek Whittaker resigned from Leyland Cars, which was about to be broken up into smaller, more manageable units.

Ironically, very soon after the announcement of the cutbacks, Motor magazine in its 4 August 1979 issue published an interview with Rover Triumph’s then 37-year-old Managing Director, Jeff Herbert.

SD1 celebrated the dedication of the Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on April 11, 1980 – the culmination of more than a decade of planning and work to bring the system online.

The strike riddled-Solihull factory was wound down during 1981 and, at great expense in late 1981, SD1 production was moved over to Cowley as the firm regrouped.

The main change taking place with the series 1 to series 2 in january 1982.

Austin Rover continued to fight the SD1’s cause, by introducing new variants, which is unusual so late into a model’s cycle: the Vanden Plas trim level became a range of cars with the introduction of the 2600 Vanden Plas and Vitesse-tuned Vanden Plas EFi in 1984.

Because of the attention paid to it by Austin Rover, SD1 sales did hold up well all the way through to the car’s demise and, in June 1986, the Rover 800 replaced it.

Sources used: Parkers Car Price Guide (July 1987), Motorists Guide (August 1987).

In June of 1992, Boone County partnered with SD1 to build a $9 million main-trunk sewer system through the central part of the county to serve Hebron, Bullittsville and Burlington.

In 1993, Dry Creek was expanded to increase design capacity to 46.5 million gallons per day.

In 1996, SD1 began an extensive rehabilitation program on the region’s collection system, spending more than $65 million to upgrade and rehab pump stations and sanitary sewer lines.

Ran an T reg Allegro in 1997 when they were nearly all gone and found this to be much better built and as bad to drive as was made out.

Chaney brought a background in finance, banking and operational management, having formed a real estate investment company in 1999 that few to include single-family residential, multi-family, office and retail properties across the region.

With the 2000, in an age when people set great store by impressive specification, engineers enjoyed themselves using quite complex solutions to achieve the design requirements.

The Public Service Park opened in 2004, merging a beautiful walking trail with an interactive learning experience that teaches visitors and local schools about water pollution prevention.

In October 2005, SD1 joined the ranks of wastewater utilities across the nation whose futures would be guided by a consent decree to improve water quality.

On September 24, 2007, the Eastern Regional Water Reclamation Facility began accepting flow after nearly three years of construction.

Beginning in 2009, storm water infrastructure transfer agreements were developed and approved by a majority of the cities and counties in Northern Kentucky, shifting to SD1 ownership and maintenance responsibilities related to the public storm water drainage system.

David Rager became SD1’s eighth executive director (formerly “general manager”) on January 1, 2012.

Executive Director Rager resigned in March of 2016, and Deputy Executive Director of Engineering Mark Wurschmidt was once again called on to lead SD1 during a search for Rager’s replacement.

Adam C. Chaney became the ninth and current SD1 Executive Director on January 3, 2017.

SD1 also unveiled an enhanced interactive financial model in 2018, developed in partnership with Black and Veatch, that allows users to change variables such as rates and immediately see how those changes impact other variables, such as long-term debt.

In April of 2020, the District announced a new smart-sewer management approach to fighting sewer overflows.