11.5 Billion Gallons

Sometimes numbers are so big they become difficult to make personally meaningful. How many grains of sand in a bucket? How many stars do you see in the night sky? The annual combined sewer overflow for the Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) is one of those numbers. 

11,500,000,000 gallons of human waste contaminated rain water isn't like visualizing a single gallon of milk. A billion gallons of water is about equal to 1,500 Olympic sized swimming pools. Eleven and a half billion gallons is about equal to 17,250 Olympic sized swimming pools...none of which you would want to swim in. 

The contaminated overflow ends up in the Ohio River, the streets of Cincinnati and sometimes the basements of the residents. One recent rain storm caused nearly 200 overflows. In recent years the city of Cincinnati has documented thousands of reported overflows and acknowledges that thousands more go unreported.

I hope the informational graphic puts the problem into a context you find meaningful:

click to enlarge