NEWS: Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells to be appointed CEO, sees "opportunity to build upon successes"

Leadership, passion, commitment among words used to describe Dreyfuss-Wells as CEO Ciaccia prepares for February retirement

Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells will be appointed Chief Executive Officer effective February 11. Dreyfuss-Wells will succeed Julius Ciaccia who, after more than nine years as CEO, will retire on February 10, 2017.

Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells addresses
the City Club, 2016

"Under the leadership of CEO Ciaccia, the Sewer District has become one of the most renowned progressive environmental organizations in the nation," Dreyfuss-Wells said. "I would like to thank the Board of Trustees for giving me the opportunity to build upon those successes."

Dreyfuss-Wells has been with the Sewer District since 2008, and currently is the Deputy Director of Watershed Programs. In addition to her leadership role in the development and implementation of the Regional Stormwater Management Program, Dreyfuss-Wells played a critical role in the negotiations with the federal government of Project Clean Lake, the Sewer District’s program to significantly reduce the amount of raw sewage discharging into the environment.

She has led on the Sewer District’s Green Infrastructure Program, including the implementation of the grants program, which is designed to remove stormwater from the combined system as redevelopment activities occur.

NEWS: "I can happily announce my intent to retire," CEO Ciaccia to leave a clean-water legacy

Ciaccia has served the Sewer District since 2007.

Julius Ciaccia, Jr., has announced his intent to retire from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, effective this coming January. Ciaccia has led the organization since 2007.

Ciaccia joined the Sewer District following a 30-year tenure with the City of Cleveland, serving as Director of Public Utilities and Commissioner of Water. Throughout his career, he has been extremely active with water and wastewater organizations, serving as President of Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), Water Utility Council Chair for American Water Works Association (AWWA), Chair at Water Research Foundation (WRF), and as President of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). He currently serves as a US Water Alliance board member and locally on the Cleveland Water alliance board.

JUST IN: Wally reinstated as official spokesdrop, Austin returns to back-up role

"Wally has shown he's ready for this. We're ready to move on and get back to work."

That was the official statement from the Sewer District this morning as their official spokesdrop Wally Waterdrop was reinstated as starting spokesdrop for the foreseeable future.

"Austin did what he could this past weekend. He showed guts," said CEO Julius Ciaccia Monday of Austin Waterdrop's promotion to the starting outreach line-up in the midst of the waterdrop controversy. "But Wally is our starter and we are excited to see him back in the starting role."

Wally was benched last week when photos surfaced showing him in the middle of what appeared to be a party, but it was unclear whether it was an outreach event and what year the photos were taken.

"I'm not looking back, I'm looking ahead," Wally said.

NEWS: Renewable Energy Facility recognized as @USGBC leader in energy, environmental design

In 2009, the District began designing a new incineration facility that would conserve resources, reduce air emissions, and generate electricity.

Six years later, the Renewable Energy Facility (REF) has been awarded LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its sustainability features including water efficiency, innovation, and indoor environmental quality.

The LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, program is the most widely used green-building rating system, with 1.7 million square feet of construction space certified every day. See the REF's official LEED scorecard.

This certification is a reflection of the facility’s success in saving money and resources, while promoting renewable, clean energy. Compared to the average commercial building, LEED Gold buildings consume less energy and less water, with lower maintenance costs, higher occupant satisfaction, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

—Story by Communications Specialist Yolanda Kelly. Thanks to Kellie Rotunno, Jim Bunsey, Tom Vasel, Steve Janosko, and everyone who worked to get the REF LEED Gold Certified.

HEALTH: 5 facts about hydration, because Dellavedova may be human after all #GetWellyDelly #ALLinCLE

Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova was hospitalized after experiencing severe cramping http://t.co/g4Y8PMy82U pic.twitter.com/d5yNVnmMyo

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 10, 2015

Following Cleveland Cavalier Matthew Dellavedova's 20-point lay-it-all-on-the-line performance in NBA Finals game 3, reports surfaced that he was hospitalized with severe cramping. It was the first indication that he may indeed be human.

Cramps are commonly caused by some combination of dehydration, muscle fatigue, and inadequate salt intake, reports cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias. As we wish Delly a quick recovery, here are 5 fast facts about keeping your body hydrated.

1. Start with water. Amidst NBA Finals advertising, sports drinks fill much of the air time, but old-fashioned H2O is a good way to start. When working out, it is recommended that you drink 7-10 ounces of water every 20 minutes.

VIDEO: What causes that wonderful after-the-rain smell? Slow-mo video reveals secrets.

That familiar scent has a name: Petrichor.

But since being named in a 1964 report, the actual cause of the after-the-storm "earthy fragrance" had been little more than theory.

That changed in January when MIT researchers captured a specific raindrop phenomena on video. Scientists observed raindrops trapping tiny air bubbles as they hit the ground. BBC explains:

They say the bubbles then shoot upwards through the raindrop and erupt into a fizz, producing extremely fine liquid droplets or solid particles that remain suspended in the air as fog or smoke, known as aerosols.

The authors suspect that the tiny particles that released into the environment release the wonderful aromatic elements from the soil along bacteria and viruses stored within.

RELATED STORIES:

• CAREERS: How one woman switched from veterinary medicine to wastewater treatment and fell in love
• LOOK: See green infrastructure plans taking root in Cleveland neighborhoods

NEWS: Could sewage be mined for gold? May also be great excuse to grow awesome beards.

Could human waste really be a source of valuable metals? Recent studies have shown potential, but realizing said potential is still a long way off in all likelihood.

The Huffington Post reported on a study that said human waste may be filled with microscopic particles of gold, silver, platinum, and copper, not to mention several other "nuisance" metals like lead.

More specifically, if these particles—measuring less than 1/100th the width of a human hair—are in human waste or at least entering the sewer system by other means, then they'd eventually make their way to wastewater treatment plants, according to studies, and could thereby be harvested for possible reuse, reduce the needs for mining, and also benefit the environment.

Working where we do, we asked a few of our experts.

"While it's an interesting idea," said our Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Frank Foley, when asked if there was any chance we could be sitting on a literal gold mine in our collection system, "I’m not sure if we currently have information that would allow us to quantify the amount of precious metals in our ash."

Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant, Cleveland

Ash is the byproduct of the incineration that manages the "biosolids," organic materials left over from the wastewater treatment process.

He continued: "Another key, stated in the articles is that there would be a cost to extracting the metals from the ash. That would also have to be quantified to determine if it would be worth attempting to recover any of the material." Research presented in Denver this week said the recovery of these metals using current technology "may not be commercially viable."

Translation: Waaaaay too expensive.

Precious metals like these are not in our treatment plant permit limits, says Senior Environmental Specialist Elizabeth Toot-Levy, so we don't monitor for them. That makes an assessment more difficult. And while we do monitor industries like plating companies to make sure they are not discharging metals to the waste stream, one we have spoken to in the past about gold plating stated it takes extra precautions to ensure that their precious products are not flushed away.

So could sewage be a future source of the metals that make their way into our cell phones and computers? Time and further study will tell. In the meantime, we'll keep our eyes on what does flow into our plant, because you never know what you'll find.

HEADLINES: "Frozen fecal matter closes interstate exit ramp." Aaaaaand speechless.

Road crews in Lafayette, Indiana, spent Thursday afternoon scraping fecal matter off the interstate. A tanker truck spilled, leaving excrement in a mound as deep as eight inches, spread across the exit ramp.

But oh that wasn't all.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the pooling excrement froze, causing a toxic poopsicle, as well as a traffic hazard.

A video crew was in the newsroom when word of this story came in over the scanner:

Hat tip to Adam @asum2326 for the link.

ALGAE: In wake of Toledo's algae woes, investigation takes deeper look at causes, solutions (Video)

Is the toxic algae that led to Toledo's three-day "DO NOT DRINK" declaration this summer a threat to Cleveland in the future?

While Cleveland's lake conditions differ from those of the western Lake Erie basin, when our Great Lake is threatened, all of its neighbors need to take notice.

This week, Fox 8 News' I-TEAM ran a two-part series focused on the toxic algae bloom that led to Toledo's water ban in August, asking questions about the decisions made, the testing methods employed, and future work being considered to keep our lake and the surrounding residents safe. The videos and their complete reports are linked below.

PIC: Main entrance wall crumbles, security responds as car crashes at Easterly plant

Image credit Alexander Malloy, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

Security officers responded to an early Thursday morning crash at our Easterly plant today where a driver careened off the road, demolishing our main gate welcome sign.

Paramedics took the driver to the hospital following the accident and his condition is not known at this time. There were no other injuries on site, according to Officers Alexander Malloy and Jason Kern's accident report.

The report described that the vehicle crossed through the intersection of East 140th Street and Lake Shore Boulevard before crashing into the plant's main front wall about 5:00 a.m., not far from the guard house a few hundred feet away. The officers tended to the driver until paramedics arrived and extracted him from the vehicle for medical attention.

We'd like to thank Officers Malloy and Kern for responding to the incident and we wish the driver a full recovery.

WEIRD: Minnesota man faces charges after clogging toilets with pounds of nails

We have an entire list of things people shouldn't flush down the toilet. Looks like we need to add another one to it.

A St. Paul, Minnesota man is being charged with first-degree property damage after he was alleged to have dumped pounds of hardware-store nails down toilets in at least three different locations, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

#WaterWorks: Pipes, problems, and potential? Why water infrastructure stands in the national spotlight today.

 

Efficiency doesn't always make headlines.

Today, a national summit in Washington, D.C. is trying to change that by bringing attention to the water infrastructure our entire country relies on and yet so often overlooks.

The goal is to raise awareness of the jobs and economic impact of America's water and sewer projects, a value the Water Research Foundation places at $524 billion over the next decade and more than 289,000 jobs annually. | Download the complete report. Download a national fact sheet.

PIC: And now, just your average sewer blockage longer than a Boeing 747.

Next time you consider flushing wipes or washing cooking grease down your drain, consider you might be contributing to a Boeing 747-size sewer blockage under your city.

It happened in the UK where Thames Water recently spent four days clearing a 262-foot blockage of fat, grease, and disposable wipes from a local sewer. That's more than 20 feet longer than an average Boeing 747 jet.

Our maintenance crews have seen crazy stuff, but never anything close to a mass of this magnitude. Still, the key contributing factors—disposable wipes and cooking grease—are among our top 15 items you shouldn't flush. Just because it can fit down your drain doesn't mean it belongs there.

We say, "Don't use your toilet as a garbage can." In London, they say, "Bin it, don't block it." Even across the pond, sewer smarts are a universal language.

OPINION: Toledo's "Do not drink" order should be a wake-up call

Much like the 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River, it takes catastrophic events to get real action.

This weekend, in Toledo, a large population base was adversely impacted and could not use its potable water system for the most basic needs, cooking and drinking. We need to ask ourselves: Should this be happening in 2014?

The answer is simple: No.

For decades, leaders at all levels have known about the factors, including polluted stormater runoff, which was a major cause of the situation in Toledo. For years, the wastewater industry has been aggressively pushing the need for a broad-based approach to deal with non-point pollution and stormwater management. In Greater Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District developed a program, the Regional Stormwater Management Program, to address regional stormwater problems like runoff. Unfortunately our authority to carry out this program has been delayed by litigation that will soon be decided by the Ohio Supreme Court. In the meantime, stormwater problems, like erosion, flooding and water quality issues, will only continue to increase in our region.

We in Greater Cleveland are fortunate to have a water system that sits in a better strategic position and is constructed with ample redundancy to assure reliability. So we do not have a problem now. But we would be foolhardy to not consider our vulnerability in the future and our region's contributions to non-point sources that foul our waterways that feed into Lake Erie.

This event highlights the importance of our continued investments in treatment facilities, the mitigation of sewage overflows, maintenance and renewal of local sewage-collection systems, and the need to manage stormwater on a regional basis.

Julius Ciaccia
Executive Director

BREAKING: Supreme Court sets September 9 date to hear #StormwaterProgram case

In a week in which heavy storms flooded and affected many communities in eastern Cleveland suburbs, the Ohio Supreme Court has set a date for hearing oral arguments of a monumental case of regional stormwater management.

The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments September 9, in which the Sewer District will present its case that it is authorized to charge a fee and manage problems caused by stormwater runoff across the region.

The fee was expected to collect $35 million per year to address cross-community stream flooding, erosion and maintenance issues until an appeals court ruling suspended the program last September.

Since then, several significant storms have wreaked havoc on local communities while $20 million has sat in escrow while the program is halted.

"It is clear a majority of the Sewer District’s member communities and others understand the significant benefit of the program," Sewer District Executive Director Julius Ciaccia has stated previously.

“This case...is of great public interest, not just to our region, but to all Ohioans,” said Director of Law Marlene Sundheimer.

Related stories:

• WATCH: Ohio Supreme Court hearing live-stream September 9
• Regional stormwater program heads to Supreme Court
• Litigation hinders ability to assist communities following storm
• FAQ: 21 customer questions about the #StormwaterProgram ruling, fees, billing, and more

NEWS: Board officers are re-elected for 2014-2015 term

On July 3, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Board of Trustees re-elected Darnell Brown as President and Ronald D. Sulik as Vice President. The Board has also elected Walter O’Malley as Secretary.

Brown was first appointed to the Board by former Cleveland Mayor Michael White in 2001 and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for the City of Cleveland. He previously served as Board President 2005-2011.

Sulik previously served on the Board from 1985-1994, was re-appointed in 2002 and most recently served as Vice President for 2010-2014. He represents the Sewer District’s 61 suburban communities and has held the positions of President, Vice President and Secretary throughout his 19-year tenure.

O’Malley, current President of IBEW Local 38, was appointed to the Board in 2009 by Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson. He previously served as Acting Secretary, replacing former Secretary Sheila E. Kelly following her retirement in March 2014.

“We've had many important issues in front of us [in the last year],” Brown said. "We'll have many more. We must do our due diligence on green infrastructure, and get closure on stormwater [management]. Those are two key issues for us."

"We want to do all we can to ensure that this agency continues to maintain its national and regional reputations," he added.

Board appointees serve five-year terms and the complete list of Board Members is available online.

#RNC2CLE: Whatever your party, clean water is worth celebrating.

Big news for the CLE from the RNC today as Cleveland and Dallas are the final two cities in the running for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Whatever your political leanings might be, an event like this could bring much attention to Cleveland in a very positive way. Of course, we're proud of our natural resources and our work that helps keep them great. Despite the challenges of today and tomorrow, there is hope, and there is action.

And that's a ticket worth running on.

NEWS: Indictment alleges company illegally discharged zinc, chrome into sewer system

Sewer District Water Quality & Industrial Surveillance (shown above) and Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant staff assisted with the investigation that led to today's indictment.

An indictment was filed in federal court today charging Thomas E. White, 49, of Fairview Park, and Kelly Plating Company with making illegal discharges with high concentrations of metals such as chrome and zinc into the sewer system.

The indictment alleges that Kelly Plating ensured all of its pollution control equipment—which was "was operated properly" on weekdays—was bypassed on weekends, discharging partially treated waste and high concentrations of chrome and zinc directly to the sewer system.

"[We have] made significant investments to improve water quality in our region, and will not tolerate actions that jeopardize that investment," said Sewer District Executive Director Julius Ciaccia in a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Sewer District, its stringent industrial monitoring program and Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant staff were proud to contribute to the investigation with partners Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Read the full release.

WEIRD: Calif. mayor resigns after caught on video flinging dog poop on neighbor's lawn

Mud-slinging is common in politics, but this slinging cost a mayor his job.

A California mayor recently resigned after being caught on camera flinging a bad of his dog's feces on his neighbor's lawn.

According to Newschannel 5 and Newsy:

The Los Angeles Times reports about 100 people attended an hourslong city council meeting June 11 where several residents called for [Mayor Dennis] Kneier's resignation in what they creatively dubbed the "poopgate" incident.

While we applaud the former mayor's initiative picking up after his pup, heading for the trash rather than the grass would have prevented both pollution and this unfortunate scandal.

Perhaps most unfortunate is the loss of so many creative campaign commercials Kneier's challengers could have come up with next election season.

ENTERTAINMENT: #Watermen series will take reality TV to a new low, and it looks filthy.

Reality television is about to hit a new low: Sewers, and the team who keeps things flowing.

United Utilities—one of the UK's largest water and wastewater service providers—will star in a six-part documentary series called "Watermen: A dirty business" on BBC2 starting today.