EVENTS: #SewerU May 17, special tech tour May 18 to mark Infrastructure Week

Infrastructure Week shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked systems that help make daily life function. Two special events in May will cast that light in two colors: Green and gray.

We are excited to host our fourth Sewer University #SewerU Wednesday, May 17 at the Cleveland Metroparks Watershed Stewardship Center at West Creek, and our first-ever Tech Tour of our Westerly Wastewater Treatment Center in Cleveland Thursday, May 18.

Both events will be hosted during Infrastructure Week, a national education and awareness campaign, May 15-19, 2017.

Sewer University: Green infrastructure edition
Wednesday, May 17 | Register today
Cleveland Metroparks Watershed Stewardship Center at West Creek

SewerU is an introductory-level two-hour course sharing the history and future of clean water in the Cleveland area. This session will shift the focus to green infrastructure and how the Sewer District is implementing and evaluating GI opportunities on recent, current, and upcoming projects.

Tech Tour: Westerly Wastewater Treatment Center
Thursday, May 18 | Register today
5800 West Memorial Shoreway, Cleveland

Public tours of our facilities are often bird's-eye-view glimpses at the work involved in keeping our Great Lake great. But this special Tech Tour event will be a behind-the-scenes down-and-dirty technical analysis of the treatment process. You'll see the gray infrastructure that keeps flow moving and the biological systems that ensure water is treated safely. You'll never look at your toilet the same way again. Space is limited to 12 participants!

PROFILES: How Kate's ability to grow has helped her career, and the health of her coworkers

Kate in her role as a maintenance worker.

Within nine years, Kate Rybarczyk’s work ethic took her from Custodian to Plant Maintenance Manager.

“As a mechanic I strengthened my problem-solving skills,” shared Kate from the Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant. “When something wasn’t working, we'd troubleshoot to determine how we could fix it, rebuild it, or modify it.”

Kate also worked to enhance her communications skills through District self-improvement courses, and utilized the Tuition Assistance Program to get an associate's degree from Tri-C. These opportunities led to her most recent management role.

RELATED NEWS: Have you considered a clean-water career?

Outside of work, Kate’s interests include landscaping, gardening, health and fitness, and winemaking. She is well-versed in all these topics. When asked for a health tip, Kate warned against processed food. “Everyone thinks they're convenient, but studies are showing negative long-term health effects.”

Kate’s passion for health and fitness led to her involvement in the Sewer District’s Wellness program. Alongside co-worker Mitch Falatach, Kate built a community garden at Westerly visible from the employee lunchroom nearby. This year, the garden has a variety of leafy greens, green peppers, hot and sweet peppers, and tomatoes.

“The garden makes [being] healthy convenient. If the operators are here at night, on the weekend, or someone is working overtime, they can go outside and grab what they need for a salad, instead of hitting the vending machine.”

In addition to the Wellness Program, Kate is involved in the Veteran’s Employee Resource Group, and she is Westerly’s lead for Charity Choice and the Women’s Employee Resource Group.

Kate, right, says these garden boxes she built at Westerly helped make being healthy more convenient.

– Story and photos by Yolanda Kelly

MEMORIAL: Louis Stokes' legacy in Northeast Ohio touches environment, infrastructure, education

By U.S. Congress [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

Congressman Louis Stokes was known for many things. While his actions to protect clean water may not be one of them, it should be.

Congressman Stokes, who passed away Tuesday after a battle with cancer, was pivotal in securing Federal funding for Northeast Ohio infrastructure that helped improve and further protect the water quality of Lake Erie.

"Congressman Stokes had an impact on our region that is broad and lasting," said our Director of Administration and External Affairs Constance T. Haqq. "His focus on civil rights and the poor is well known, but our clean-water infrastructure was also something that improved through his influence."

While Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Congressman Stokes secured more than $60 million in special appropriations in the early 1990s to convert our Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant from a failed physical-treatment process to a new biological facility.

In 1998, the Sewer District established the Louis Stokes Environmental Studies Scholarship in his honor to provide assistance to deserving Central State University students majoring in Water Resources Management, Industrial Technology, and Environmental Engineering.

Denise Phillips was a Central State University student and a recipient of the Stokes Scholarship. She is currently an Investigator in our Water Quality & Industrial Surveillance department. "The scholarship provided me with the opportunity to intern with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District," she said. "I'm pursuing my career at the Sewer District in a field that I love. This scholarship was life-changing for me and I am so grateful to Louis Stokes for this wonderful opportunity."

"I admire Mr. Stokes' legacy," said Lamar Legrone, a 2011-2013 Stokes scholarship recipient. "His dedication to Cleveland and his role in Congress opened doors for many inner-city students."

Fellow recipient Daniel Peoples (2013-2015) agreed. "Mr. Stokes gave urban youths a much better situation. He will be missed." 

#neorsdTOUR: Share your best pics and your feedback from the tour for chances to win

If you are joining us this Saturday, make sure your phone is charged and you grab a comment card while you're there.

We're excited to announce two contests for this year's Open House Saturday, September 28 from 9 to 2 at the Westerly Wastewater Treatment Center:

Share your best photos on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and tag them with #neorsdTOUR for a chance to win one of three T-shirts and a #neorsdTOUR prize pack. Also, be sure to complete a comment card so we can improve these events in the future. We'll randomly choose one winner from those comments next week to receive a Kindle Fire.

#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.

PROFILE: Students travel the ins and outs of Cleveland's water cycle

Assistant superintendent Dan Smith speaks to a group of Sewer District summer students and co-ops from a point high atop a trickling filter at the Westerly plant in Cleveland.

Think of it as a water-cycle/career-prep roadtrip. The Sewer District calls it success@work.

The District recently dedicated a day to providing its summer students with insight on how to be more successful in the workplace. With that came a closer look into the work of the Sewer District, the urban water cycle, and related career opportunities present in the Greater Cleveland community.

“I didn’t expect too much, but I really got a lot out of it,” said Ryan Stroud, a student at Case Western Reserve University working in a summer position in Building Maintenance. “We got a lot of information about the (treatment) plants and how the water cycle in Cleveland works, but we also got a lot about personal development.”

Treatment plant performance was top-notch in 2010

Greg Glover, Victor Chan, and Gerald Borling check the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to monitor phosphorous levels in the wastewater.

In 2010, each of the District’s treatment plants achieved 100% compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. It was the first year since 1999 that all three plants had zero permit excursions.

2010: From stormwater to sewage and everything in between

The last 12 months have been filled with clean-water progress and projects that affect every one of our customers and one million Northeast Ohio residents. Here are just a few of our 2010 accomplishments: