A flashy creek story: The MSD manipulates a safety event into a PR win

It is no secret that the Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) has been opposed to a plan to patch a specific segment of sewer pipe on the West Side of Cincinnati. What is a surprise is that the MSD would misrepresent a safety event to support their claims that the project was not feasible and score a Public Relations coup using a partly nonfactual narrative. The misrepresentation comes from leaving out major details of the safety event.

Hurricane Barry floods Muddy Creek

The misrepresentation begins with this image used to support the MSD assertion that the Muddy Creek in Cincinnati is 'flashy' too unpredictable and too dangerous for equipment to work on projects. Yes, we have a 'muddy creek' named the Muddy Creek in Cincinnati.

It does look like a pretty dangerous situation but that is as far as the MSD report and MSD presentation on this topic are factual. 

The rain event that endangered the equipment was predicable and expected with four days notice! The date of event and the equipment in the creek was July 15th 2019. The same date the remnants of Hurricane Barry came through Cincinnati. The weather event had been forecast in the news for four days. A weather alert came out that day.

NWS July 15 2019

The equipment in the creek image is also in question. The MSD image on official record has been altered and the metadata removed (history attached to an image or file). As reported, what is missing from the image is the chain holding the equipment to a tree. The contractor appears to have anticipated the rain event. The equipment should have been removed in advance of the weather. 

In an Ohio Records Request to the MSD the MSD did not respond on a request to provide any safety report associated with the removal of the equipment from the creek. This was a dangerous situation and a safety report would have been expected.

The MSD Director repeated this narrative to the Major Projects & Smart Government Committee meeting on May 12th 2020:

Per the MSD Director the flooding happened in minutes, that may well be, but it was with four days notice.

The MSD and Hamilton County will need to speak to the question if the creek is actually dangerous but it is clear the equipment image and narrative were inappropriate choices by the MSD. In the end the memo did score points for the MSD in their attempt to discredit the position of Hamilton County oversight but it was done through a misrepresentation of facts. There appear to be more items not-quite-right in the memo and presentation. It is wasteful that Hamilton County staff are put in the position of having to fact check everything the MSD dumps on them.

Another question that does beg answering. If the creek was too dangerous for equipment then why did the MSD have a project that put equipment in the creek in the first place? The project that was in progress had awareness of the same creek factors and appears to have been a non-critical task.

The Google Drive share for the following documents obtained through Ohio Open Records Law and Freedom Of Information Act requests:

UMCI March 3 Council Committee Presentation
MSD Comments to Proposed Plan to Attempt Patching of Failed Upper Muddy February 26 2020