MSD Proposition Y
Prop Y will fund five years of upgrades for MSD’s “Project Clear” consent decree with the federal government, which in turn will cost a minimum of $4.7 billion over two decades to fix sewage overflows and other sewer system improvements. Funding Project Clear through bond issues could add several billion dollars of interest to the final tab.
Proposition Y was originally intended to go to voters in April 2020, but the vote was postponed after the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and stay-at-home orders in the weeks leading up to that election, which was ultimately postponed until June.
In addition to Proposition Y, voters will also be presented with several potential changes to MSD Project Clear’s Charter. The work to be funded during this period, which is necessary to improve water quality in the region as part of an agreement between MSD, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, includes nearly 300 projects d
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District has a $500 million bond issue, Proposition Y, on the ballot April 6.
Prop Y will fund five years of needed upgrades for MSD’s “Project Clear” consent decree with the federal government, which in turn will cost a minimum of $4.7 billion over two decades to fix sewage overflows and other sewer system improvements. Funding Project Clear through bond issues could add several billion dollars of interest to the final tab.
But the federal government is requiring MSD to fund those upgrades, no matter the cost to ratepayers. As pointed out in an op-ed from frequent MSD critic Tom Sullivan, the sewer district should have tried to fix and fund these problems many decades ago but didn’t.
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is asking voters in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis to make a decision this spring on a $500 million bond issue that will increase wastewater rates to pay for the sewer district’s $1.58 billion consent decree with the federal government. Proposition Y, on the April.