Pond Creek Station Pumps Millions of Gallons of Water Per Minute as Flooding Continues

Pond Creek
February 24, 2018

As the Ohio River’s banks continue to swell, MSD is hard at work to keep Louisville safe and clean. This effort is clear to see on days like today as the Ohio River floods its banks, particularly at major facilities like MSD’s Pond Creek Pumping Station.

Charged with flood protection for the city, the MSD system includes 29 miles of floodwall and earthen levee, 16 flood pumping stations, nearly 150 floodgates and 80 floodwall closures.

Pond Creek is one of those 16 pumping stations, and today, four gigantic pumps pushed 1.8 million gallons of water a minute into a wide open area that looks like a wetland, with trees poking out just above the water. The wetland is actually Pond Creek, which typically looks like a smaller body of water with grass and trees along the banks when it is not flooded.

Built in 1988 by the Army Corp of Engineers, Pond Creek has two purposes: keep the Ohio River out of southwest Jefferson county and push rising water of Pond Creek -- inland water -- away from homes and businesses. It’s is the second largest flood pumping station in the MSD Flood Protection System, with four 4,700 horsepower pumps.

There’s a connection between all the rivers in this region. As the Ohio River rises, so do the tributaries that feed into it.

In conditions like this, MSD closes the floodgates at Pond Creek to keep the river out. Then, four pumps kick in, and push the interior water that’s in Fairdale and other communities through a large cement channel and then over the flood wall and eventually into the Ohio River.

Typically, there are about 15 people at MSD assigned to flood protection, but during flooding, it’s many more, with all hands on deck. MSD’s Flood Protection System protects more than 200,000 people, 87,000 homes and $24 billion in property throughout 110 square miles of Louisville.