ARCHIVES: Her name is Peggy.

Who was she?

We posted this image on our Facebook page in 2011 but had no other information on her at the time. No one in our sewer maintenance department could identify her, and little was known about the equipment it appeared she was using.

It became a favorite photo of mine because it conveyed an employee working with both confidence and purpose, perhaps answering a question from a co-worker or member of our communications team. But was she an employee? When was the photo taken? What was she doing? The interest remained, and the questions remained unanswered.

Until yesterday.

ARCHIVES: A photograph that changed everything

Like rummaging through family photos from a dusty hatbox in the attic, finding a photo in our Sewer District archives can have amazing emotional impacts.

We found this one today.

#neorsdTOUR: Open House updates and news

Headed to our Open House Saturday? We're excited about it, and hope you are, too. Earlier this week we sent an email to attendees who registered online, and also posted the same news on our Facebook event page, just to provide an update. Here's the latest.

OPEN HOUSE 9/8: Are you excited? Sewer we.

In celebration of our 40th anniversary, we invite you to attend the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's 5th annual “Where Does It Go?” Open House on Saturday, September 8. The event will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m at the Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant near Edgewater State Park in Cleveland.

[RSVP online today!]

TOP 10: Reasons a sewage treatment plant open house is worth a Saturday visit

You might think there is an endless list of places you'd rather be than a Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District open house like the one we're having Saturday, September 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

But here are at least 10 reasons why an up-close look at the clean-water process could be worth your time.

HISTORY: 40-year anniversary, 100+ years of history?

Expansion of our Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. April 5, 1932.

Our history predates our creation. Make sense?

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Cleveland Regional Sewer District, which would later be renamed the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. But that doesn't mean the area's wastewater treatment efforts began in 1972. They began decades before.

Our three wastewater treatment plants—Easterly and Westerly in Cleveland, and Southerly in Cuyahoga Heights—were originally built by the City of Cleveland, and all date back to the early 1900s: Easterly began screening wastewater in 1908, Westerly in 1919, and Southerly in 1928.

ARCHIVES: Drive-in was Southerly neighbor in 1960s

Image by Robert Frank, 1955.

Our student assistant Stephanie Harris uncovered a great bit of nostalgia recently when she included the phrase "drive-in theater" in a story about our Southerly wastewater treatment plant in Cuyahoga Heights.

That's right. Our current plant's footprint covers a space that used to be the Canal Road All-Weather Drive-In Theatre.

The theater opened in 1963, but photos of the locale were hard to come by. There was this one posted by drive-ins.com ("the definitive resource for drive-in information") as seen below, perhaps from the 1970s.

The Sewer District took over the Southerly plant in 1972. While we're not sure when the theatre was closed (although one PDF reference included the date 1976), it was razed in 1979 during significant expansion and upgrades at Southerly, and the site is where the Effluent Building sits today.

Nice detective work, Stephanie.