GREEN: Can green make a lot of difference? Parking improvements will manage stormwater in Slavic Village

Green infrastructure grant funds contribute to a more sustainable neighborhood design

Slavic Village Development commemorated the start of construction of a new parking lot along Fleet Avenue with a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, May 8. The parking lot, located at 6305 Fleet Avenue, directly east of Seven Roses Polish Delicatessen, includes a lot with permeable paver patio and bioretention features.

The lot will reduce impervious area in the neighborhood by 1,000 square feet: 300 square feet of bioretention features and a 600-square-foot patio will help infiltrate 30,000 gallons of stormwater into the ground each year.

In 2015, Slavic Village Development was awarded a Green Infrastructure Grant from the Sewer District to help fund this project. The $43,814 grant is approximately half of the entire project cost. The grants are available to communities and non-profit organizations in the Combined Sewer Area who are interested in implementing water resource projects that remove stormwater from the combined sewer system.

Green Infrastructure includes stormwater source control measures that store, filter, infiltrate or evapotranspirate stormwater to increase resiliency of infrastructure by reducing stress on wet-weather drainage and collection systems which increase co-benefits in support of healthy environments and strong communities.

The parking lot is expected to be complete by early July.

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!

WATCH: Kyle and Matt bring a serving of sewer science to @WCPN

Kyle and Matt served up a heaping helping of sewer science on today's Sound of Ideas on WCPN.

Deputy Director of Watershed Programs and soon-to-be CEO Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells and Watershed Team Leader Matt Scharver appeared with Mike McIntyre today to promote their Science Cafe presentation January 9.

PROJECTS: 7 things to know about green infrastructure projects in East Cleveland

Sewer projects often are much more than sewers. And solutions can be found beyond the construction sites many are used to.

One of our current projects scheduled for this year is happening in part in East Cleveland, a combination of sewer and green-infrastructure construction that will reduce pollution to local waterways.

The project name is a mouthful: The East 140th Street Consolidation and Relief Sewers project, or E140CRS.

Media and residents have asked questions about the project plans, so we wanted to offer seven important points about the project's origin, benefits, and approach to clear any confusion.

1. Cleveland is built on old (but maintained) sewer network known as combined sewers. 

We start at the beginning, a long time ago. Combined sewers carry stormwater and sewage in the same pipe, a design that dates back to the early 1900s; it was effective for moving and collecting wastewater back in the day.

Combined sewer overflows result because the sewer system in East Cleveland—and other older, urban communities—is not equipped to handle the mixture of stormwater and sanitary sewage that results from significant rain events. When the sewers reach capacity, they overflow to the environment at relief points called combined sewer overflows. Overflows affect the environment, water quality, and public health.

GREEN: 6 ways green infrastructure takes root locally and regionally

Protect. Enhance. Preserve. Restore.

These goals are at the heart of the sweeping Green Infrastructure Policy that guides the projects we pursue and helps quantify their benefits to our region.

"The policy demonstrates a commitment," said Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, Deputy Director of Watershed Programs. "It lays out a future where green infrastructure is integrated across our program areas to lead the most effective applications of this technology."

Defining green

Definitions of "green infrastructure" can vary across cities and agencies, but the Sewer District embraces two clear definitions as follows:

Project Clean Lake green infrastructure
Related to our 25-year combined sewer overflow consent decree
The range of stormwater control measures that use plant/soil systems, permeable pavement, or stormwater harvest and reuse, to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to the combined sewer system.

Wet-Weather Program green infrastructure
Stormwater source control measures that store, filter, infiltrate, harvest and reuse, or evapotranspirate stormwater to increase resiliency of infrastructure by reducing stress on wet-weather drainage and collection systems which increase co-benefits in support of healthy environments and strong communities.

WATCH | How it works: Permeable pavers at the Western Reserve Historical Society

It's not the first permeable-pavers project we've supported, but it's the first time we've had a truck dump a tank-load of water on one for a video.

The Cleveland History Center at the Western Reserve Historical Society recently completed a renovation of its parking lot with the support of a Green Infrastructure Grant from the Regional Sewer District. Green infrastructure components helped better manage stormwater runoff on-site and reduced the amount of stormwater entering the combined sewer system.

Stormwater Technical Specialist Dave Ritter and CHS Director of Operations Angie Lowrie tell us a little about the project as Dave explains how the pavers and gravel work together to filter and infiltrate runoff.

PROJECTS: Urban Agriculture project features will protect Lake Erie, plant seeds of knowledge

"Cleveland is known across the country for its re-purposing vacant and abandoned properties for urban agriculture."

Those are the words of our Deputy Director of Watershed Programs Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells. And now, as this home-grown movement gets a boost from our green infrastructure program, a new urban ag project will help manage stormwater, reduce pollution to Lake Erie, and offer a new site for environmental outreach and education.

Located in the Kinsman neighborhood on Cleveland’s east side, the Green Ambassador—Urban Agriculture project is designed to manage 7 million gallons of stormwater a year, reducing combined sewer overflow volumes to Lake Erie by 1.6 million gallons and improving water quality when complete in 2017.

VIDEO: What's happening under Public Square in Cleveland?

Behind the concrete barriers and orange construction fencing at the corner of Superior and Ontario, there is an overwhelming amount of activity taking place to renovate Public Square.

Cleveland.com showcased aerial images of the site's progress in a recent story as crews rush to take advantage of good weather to stay on schedule for a 2016 completion. But what's happening underground?

Often overlooked is the infrastructure that will help improve water quality and manage stormwater at the same time, innovations that will increase greenspace on the site and promote sustainability.

Stormwater Technical Specialist David Ritter recently took us behind the barriers to give us an idea of how this "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity that began last October is taking shape and how sewer improvements have a positive effect on Lake Erie.

"The Sewer District saw this as an opportunity to manage stormwater in a highly urbanized environment," Ritter said, "and was able to work with [partners] to leverage the work that was already going on here at Public Square."

#ALLinCLE: How an NBA Finals game and stormwater management are painfully similar

Not concerned. Have you heard about our Stormwater Management Program? @matthewdelly @kingjames #ALLinCLE @SFWater pic.twitter.com/xdkcm57dVq

— NE Oh Regional Sewer (@neorsd) June 12, 2015

What began as a tongue-in-cheek exchange between utilities in the heat of their cities' NBA Finals battle shed light on odd similarities between basketball and managing stormwater.

The Cavs' game 4 performance was painful, but it proved four important points that fans of the hardwood and sustainability can both embrace. Are there others you would add?

1. Good defense can beat good offense.

It proved itself in the Cavs' wins in games 2 and 3 as Cleveland's defense kept "Splash City's" shooters at bay. Stormwater management works the same way.

Stormwater runoff in Cleveland's heavy storms wreaks havoc on combined sewer systems for a variety of reasons. One solution is to but up a good defense on your property to slow the flow of the water much like slowing the flow of a powerful offense.

This can be done with downspout disconnects, reducing hard surfaces (known as impervious pavement), or increasing green spaces to allow water to soak into the ground rather than rushing off toward storm sewers, combined sewers, or local waterways. There are plenty of tips you can use at home.

NEWS: Central neighborhood brownfields go green with Sewer District project

Sewer District awarded $400,000 in clean-up funds to help with Green Infrastructure project

Contaminated land like this between Woodland Ave. and
Kinsman Rd. will be remediated to make way for a green
infrastructure project.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has been awarded $400,000 from the US Environmental Protection Agency to clean up two brownfields in Cleveland's Central Neighborhood.

Two properties located between Woodland Avenue and Kinsman Road near E. 65th Street, polluted with thousands of cubic yards of industrial waste atop contaminated soils, will be remediated to make way for the Sewer District's Woodland Central Green Infrastructure Project.

The Sewer District applied for two Brownfields Cleanup Grants, each with a maximum award of $200,000. Awarded monies will help defray the total cost for site cleanup; estimated remediation costs are $1.2 million for these properties alone. Cleanup activities will include site preparation and restoration, removal and separation of solid waste, transportation and disposal of trash as well as backfilling of the site.

"We are extremely pleased about receiving these grants and grateful to our congressional delegation for supporting our applications," said Julius Ciaccia CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

PROJECTS: About the Fairhill/MLK Green Ambassador Project in Cleveland

Known as the Fairhill-MLK Green Infrastructure Ambassador Project on the northeast corner of Fairhill Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Cleveland, this functional and aesthetic project will control stormwater and reduce the amount of water reaching the combined sewer system.

Green infrastructure includes a range of stormwater control measures—plant/soil systems, permeable pavement or other forms of stormwater harvest and reuse—to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to the combined sewer system. It's an integral part of Project Clean Lake.

Existing conditions at Fairhill-MLK

The Project includes construction of a large basin and installation of new, separate storm sewers along E. 124 Street and portions of Fairhill Road, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Britton Drive, Mt. Overlook Avenue and E. 126 Street. It will manage 17 million gallons of stormwater in a typical year.

Sewer District representatives have held three public meetings offering attendees the opportunity to not only provide their opinion on the project, but also choose many of the aesthetic features.

UPDATE: This pre-construction public-meeting slide deck was presented to the community March 25, 2015. Prior slides describe Project Clean Lake and related work; subsequent slides present greater detail on the design and function of this project.

Fairhill/MLK pre-construction public meeting 3-25-2015 from Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

ANTICIPATED ROAD CLOSURES:
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RELATED STORIES:

• HISTORY: What is Project Clean Lake? / Video
• VIDEO: What is a combined sewer overflow?
• ABOUT: 7 reasons our Project Clean Lake plan was a groundbreaking agreement

#SoTU: Three infrastructure nuggets we would not be surprised to hear at tonight's State of the Union

Image credit Wikipedia

In what The Hill calls "an unusual move," the White House has released an overview of the programs that will be unveiled at tonight's State of the Union address.

From tax-code overhauls to expanding broadband internet access, there's not a direct reference to water or sewer infrastructure in President Obama's SOTU highlights so far, but based on recent events, here are three things we wouldn't be surprised to hear.

FEATURE: Eric's sewer cover design will be a fixture on Project Clean Lake green infrastructure

People are going to look down on and walk all over Eric's artwork for years to come, and those aren't criticisms.

Eric Shebestak of Parma won our Manhole Cover Design Contest over the summer, meaning his illustration will be cast on storm-sewer manhole covers next year as part of several Project Clean Lake green infrastructure projects.

He recently stopped by to pick up his prize and talk with us about the project.

"I work with First Energy along the lake," he said, "so water quality is very important to me, I see it every day."

EVENT: East Cleveland community meeting will discuss upcoming green projects this Thursday 11/20

On Thursday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m., the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will host a meeting for East Cleveland residents and business owners to discuss a future green infrastructure project, the “East 140th Street South Green Infrastructure Projects.”

The meeting will take place at the East Cleveland Public Library (14101 Euclid Ave., East Cleveland). Sewer District representatives will discuss possible neighborhood amenities and gather input from residents and the local business community.

Green Infrastructure project locations include:

• Near Euclid Avenue and Page Avenue
• Near Hayden Avenue and Scioto Avenue
• Near Hayden Avenue and 1st Avenue.

LOOK: See green infrastructure plans taking root in Cleveland neighborhoods

Visitors from across the country toured six green-infrastructure pilot projects across Cleveland this week as part of the second annual Green Infrastructure Summit held at Cleveland State University.

These sites featured a combination of small-scale demonstrations, green-infrastructure—components of Project Clean Lake to help reduce flow volumes in our combined-sewer area—and water resource restoration projects.

GREEN: Cleveland to host national green-infrastructure summit, showcase Project Clean Lake lessons, opportunities

Consider it a who's who of green infrastructure, and the summit's coming to Cleveland.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District welcomes the Second Community Summit on Green Infrastructure next week, also celebrating the completion of its first Project Clean Lake neighborhood green-infrastructure project.

The summit is jointly hosted by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Sewer District and Cleveland State University October 26-28, intending to foster better implementation of green infrastructure throughout the country.

As part of the summit, the Sewer District will hold a press conference Monday, October 27, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at the project site located between Aetna Road and Union Avenue on E. 78th Street in Cleveland, celebrating the completion of the Green Ambassador Slavic Village Demonstration Project.

"This is an exciting day for the Sewer District and the Greater Cleveland community," said Julius Ciaccia, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. "This is the first green infrastructure project completed in a residential neighborhood under Project Clean Lake. It is also a perfect example of utilizing a mix of vacant and private property to address water quality issues."

GREEN: Understanding the spectrum, our shade of green must be smart stormwater solutions [#neorsdGREEN]

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District actively engages in GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE projects that promote smart stormwater solutions.

Our smart stormwater solutions always consider the following four criteria: 

COST

As responsible stewards of our customers' money, we take into account the cost vs. the benefits of different methods of stormwater control—whether to go gray (build a tunnel) or green (construct a bioretention feature).

SITE CHARACTERISTICS

The decision of whether to build a tunnel or construct a bioretention feature depends on the particular characteristics of any one site and any one combined-sewer area. These characteristics include:

#neorsdGREEN: 4 cities making green part of the plan, and we're one of them.

As the country has turned its attention to green solutions to infrastructure challenges in recent years, there are cities and regions whose green work is already underway and blazing a trail others can follow.

In a new document released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Northeast Ohio is one of them.

San Francisco, Toledo, Cincinnati, and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District are four agencies who have incorporated green into their combined sewer overflow (CSO) control plans, and our efforts were highlighted as an example other cities might consider when planning to solve similar problems.

Greening CSO Plans: Planning and Modeling Green Infrastructure for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control (v...

NEWS: Sewer District, ODOT partner on green infrastructure to mitigate Opportunity Corridor’s stormwater impacts

Agreement with ODOT to provide Sewer District with $650,000 to fund green infrastructure projects throughout Doan Brook, nearby watersheds

A groundbreaking agreement between the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Ohio Department of Transportation will fund hundreds of thousands of dollars in green infrastructure grants to address stormwater impacts associated with the Opportunity Corridor construction.

Sewer District Trustees approved a resolution yesterday authorizing it to enter into an agreement with ODOT which includes a $650,000 payment to enable the Sewer District to establish a new Green Infrastructure Grants Program.

GREEN: St. Patrick's Day and 5 stories of green with Cuyahoga River connections

Our mighty Cuyahoga has never received the full Chicago River green-dye treatment, but it has some green tales to tell.

Here are five interesting stories you may not have heard.

5. The Cuyahoga River was dyed green in 2008. Mysteriously.

In January of that year, the City of Akron discovered a green dye in the Cuyahoga River near their wastewater treatment plant. The plant said they were not responsible for the dye, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency investigated the discovery. No information was available about the official source of the dye.