By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Metropolitan Sewer District got the OK Wednesday to buy eight Delhi Township homes that have suffered repeated flooding for a decade or more.

Owners will get an average of $92,237 for each home plus $4,650 for moving expenses under a plan approved 2-0 by Hamilton County commissioners. The county auditor has estimated the brick three-bedrooms are valued at $70,000 to $90,000.

Up to 10 other houses in the neighborhood off Mount Alverno Road will be floodproofed at an average cost of $6,000 each.

It's the largest sewage-related buyout officials can remember in the county.

Federal and state grants cover 75 percent of the $854,100 cost, with the Metropolitan Sewer District paying $151,000 and the township paying the rest.

Additional grants will pay 90 percent of the $2.9 million cost to tear down the houses, rebuild roads and build a retention pond to capture rainwater. The county and township will split the remaining cost, and MSD will spend $500,000 to repair sewers.

The flood-prone houses sit on a bowl-shaped section along Schroer and Glenroy avenues. When it rains, Campbell said, water leaks into some basements and then into the sewer system through drains and toilets. The influx causes stormwater and sewage to back up into other basements.

E-mail candrews@enquirer .com