Capital Program Funding & Budget
MSD is currently constructing a multi-billion dollar, multi-decade Capital Improvement & Replacement Program (CIRP) to update and rehabilitate our aging wastewater collection and treatment system, one of the nation’s largest and most complex.
This investment is necessary, in part, to protect the community from the health and safety risks associated with sewer overflows—the release of untreated wastewater into the environment. Between 1992 to 2012, MSD spent more than $2.7 billion to eliminate over 380 overflows from our system.
Projects range from new sewer, storage facility and tunnel construction, to rehabilitating sewers, pump stations and force mains, to making modifications and improvements to MSD’s seven wastewater treatment plants. The challenges we face are not new. Many parts of our aging sewer system were built more than 100 years ago, decades prior to MSD’s formation in 1954.
One of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in the St. Louis region, the CIRP is expected to create jobs and growth opportunities for local businesses throughout construction. Our modernized wastewater collection and treatment system will support viable and sustainable economic development for generations to come.
How the CIRP is funded
The CIRP is primarily funded through a combination of customer fees and revenue bonds (debt). MSD’s current rate plan, which runs from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2028, includes an increase in customer charges, as well as bonds to help fund more than $1.6 billion in needed wastewater capital improvements over that four year period.
MSD does not anticipate receiving substantial grants or direct financial support from the federal government for this construction program.