PHOTO: Kids write the darnedest things.

When kids start clearing their desks at the end of the school year, parents never know what to expect.

We were sent a photo of kindergartener Nicholas' worksheet about the five senses, and we know for a fact our plant operators can relate to his sense of smell. Chances are his teacher gave him either an A, or an "Ew."

Related stories:

• EVENT: Tour a treatment plant September 19 at our Open House
• SMELLS: Making scents of the wastewater treatment process

PHOTO: This is why. / #InfrastructureWeek #FollowTheFlow

And this Instagram caption is exactly why #InfrastructureWeek is fascinating.

The interplay of everyday structures you see and systems you don't, including the unnamed professionals who create and maintain them, are intricate works of both art and function. Sometimes it's a new perspective that opens eyes to that unappreciated reality.

While most are fascinated by the visible, for me how things are made and the unseen that makes it all happen are more fascinating. I pay much more attention to how new MacBooks are put together than some of their features. Similarly I feel the looks of bridges get all the attention. The artistry that keeps them carrying the human load day after day isn't seen as much. I found myself under the Manahattan Bridge this weekend and it was fantastic to see the intricate details of this structure I have crossed over multiple times. It was under the bridge we congregated for an Instameet that was a unique experience. Thank you @leifography for inviting me, @superamit & @wesleyverhoeve #nypix #WWIM11NYC #wwim11 #VSCOcam #nyc #instagood #instameet #instadaily #instagramnyc #photooftheday

A photo posted by Follow My Blog: Om.co (@om) on Mar 23, 2015 at 4:38am PDT

#FollowTheFlow during #InfrastructureWeek as we tweet and Instagram @neorsd. You can also follow @RebuildRenew and @TheValueofWater

LOOK: Treatment-plant steam coats trees with icy crystals

A winter wastewater wonderland?

When the temps drop below freezing and the wastewater flowing through our treatment plants' outdoor tanks is a near-constant 50ºF, the result is a whole lotta steam cascading across the plant landscape. Southerly Operator Christen Wood sent us a beautiful photo of the result.

The steam freezes to nearby trees. The ice crystals didn't last long, though; she sent a follow-up photo a few short hours later after the sunrise.

RELATED STORIES:

• WOW: Bubbling tanks, frigid temps result in wondrous icy landscape
• NEWS: Does Lake Erie's freezing trend mean more algae in the summer?

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.

PHOTOS: 11 images of the underground wonders of unseen infrastructure

The underground is full of wonders to behold. But c'mon, don't break the law to behold them.

An art and architecture publisher recently printed a book featuring stunning photos of London's underground infrastructure. The catch, according to the editor, is that the photos were taken "without permission from anyone," which can pose a number of safety and legal issues.

While we don't advocate unauthorized sewer spelunking expeditions, we completely understand the intrigue of the hidden architectural wonders of a sewer system. The handiwork, the engineering, the labor involved, it really can be amazing.

Here are some of our favorite recent images showcasing these characteristics of our own system hidden below northeast Ohio. These images were taken by our employees or contractors.

HISTORY: Big balls were used to clear sewers of the 1870s

The sewer ball on a vintage postcard. Via delcampe.net

Now that's old school. Cleaning sewers in Paris in the 1870s literally required rolling giant balls of wood and iron through the tunnels.

Atlas Obscura recently posted a story about the history of the world-famous sewer network under Paris, France, including the effort it takes to keep the 160-year-old system blockage free.

Back in the old days (and even in some stretches of sewer today), workers raked muck from sewers that could be reached safely, but some scenarios called for something more. Enter these giant balls of the 1870s. They were forcefully "bowled" against larger blockages to clear tunnels.

SOURCES: Latest tunnel construction project to be powered by giant hamster wheel. Or not.

Not an Onion headline, just fun with an already great photo.

When our Director of Engineering & Construction Kellie Rotunno tweeted her original pic earlier in the week, posting progress on our enormous Euclid Creek Tunnel project, it got our wheels spinning.

Wholly ring beams batman! Check out this 30 ton form for @neorsd's #ECT which will reduce #CSO from #greatLake Erie. pic.twitter.com/EMof0XwWcf
— Kellie Rotunno (@KellieRotunno) September 8, 2014

In reality, Kellie explained that the 30-ton rebar frame is being lowered into a Euclid Creek Tunnel shaft to connect the shaft with the three-mile tunnel itself. Once in place, the form will be lined with concrete.

We'd need a whole lotta hamsters to power something like a tunnel boring machine, but we are consistently looking for ways to make our Project Clean Lake program smarter and more sustainable.

WOW: "Wannabe photog" captures lightning strike, eerie shelf cloud over Lake Erie

When storms pop up over Lake Erie, our wastewater treatment plant operators are ready. It's a bonus when someone has a camera ready, too.

These amazing images were taken by one of our consultants from Brown & Caldwell by the name of Nick Bucurel. Nick is on-call at all hours of the day as his job is to monitor some of our plant processes that are only operational during heavy storms. (It's a pilot process known as Chemically Enhanced High-Rate Treatment, or CEHRT).

Lucky for us, his Twitter bio says he's also a wannabe photog.

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.

PICS: Interns' turn to make a difference in East Cleveland day of service

Post by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

Our work for clean water takes place in treatment plants, offices, along streams, and in the communities we serve.

Last week, 60 of our interns spent a day of service cleaning Forest Hills Park in East Cleveland with other local volunteers. It was one of a variety of experiences we offer students to bring them closer to the work we do and its impact on our neighborhoods.

Learn more about career opportunities at neorsd.org/careers 

WEIRD: Making sense of the smells of wastewater treatment [#cwc5K]

If you thought the smell of victory was unique, you've never visited a wastewater treatment plant.

Our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Center is hosting the Clean Water Classic 5K run/walk for charity this Saturday, so all of our guests will have a chance to smell both. It has raised some questions.

"What does a sewage treatment plant smell like?"

So many factors can affect the answer on any given day, but we asked one of our operators what scents runners might encounter along the five-kilometer course. Here's what she said.

PIC: This is how quickly the Cuyahoga River surged during the May 12 downpour.

Well that escalated quickly.

We've posted a few stories since the May 12 storm event that still has communities trying to clean up.

Photo by George Remias, data via USGS stream gauge along Cuyahoga River in Independence, Ohio.

LOOK: Wherever you are, look down. This could be happening under your feet right now.

Next time you see a manhole in the street, think about the work it took to build the system beneath it.

This picture from March helps tell some of that story.

PIC: Two eggs you should be glad you didn't get in your Easter basket

Maybe the Easter bunny knows we work on holidays.

Could these really be Easter eggs inside one of our treatment processes? Could they have survived the journey through the sewer system?

Christen Wood snapped this pic at our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant on Sunday. These are first-stage settling tanks that help separate our activated sludge (bacteria and other mostly organic material) from the incoming wastewater. The water flows over these weirs (the narrow walls where the eggs appear to be) and on to the lift station.

From the image, it's hard to tell if they really are eggs or just some other pastel-colored debris. In either case, it was a surprise on Easter. Said Christen, "I have no idea how they could have gotten there, but it did make me smile!"

PHOTO: Eyes playing tricks? Why clean treated water looks darker on mobile maps

You never know what you'll find on Google Maps. Like an image that looks like a wastewater treatment plant spewing something unnatural into a Great Lake.

Robert saw this today and asked us:

@neorsd hey what's this coming out of your plant? I'm sure it's safe for the fish And kids that swim in this lake pic.twitter.com/HraU5OuomA
— Robert Prendergast (@Bobby_Prender0) April 2, 2014

We answered that this is actually clean water that is being released into Lake Erie from our Easterly plant in Cleveland, but you might not think that based on the image. So we asked Easterly Assistant Superintendent Andy Rossiter to explain.

This is effluent, the clean water that has been treated at Easterly. The effluent appears darker than the surrounding water because it is clearer; you can see deeper into the water.

The surrounding lake water looks lighter because the particles in the water (which are closer to the surface) reflect the light back toward the camera.

Thanks, Andy, and thanks Robert for the good question. Have a question about sewers, our water resources, or what it takes to treat millions of gallons of sewage? Tweet us any time.

PIC: This accidental image could not have been better.

Jerry Mach, one of our Sewer System Maintenance & Operation team members, needed to snap a photograph during a recent sewer inspection. When he did, he didn't realize he had accidentally changed the camera settings to black-and-white.

The awesome result is an eerie but revealing image of the infrastructure upon which most of our cities have been built. Thanks, Jerry, and thanks Susan for passing us the photo.

#DogsCantFlush: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but no, Santa Cruz, there is no poop fairy.

We're partial to our #DogsCantFlush campaign encouraging dog owners to pick up poop, but we tip our hat to the city of Santa Cruz for the creativity behind theirs.

Photo by mobileranger. Read the full post at Santa Cruz Waves.

Thanks to Adam for sharing the link.

PIC: "Water bear" sounds cuddly, actually is pretty terrifying.

A color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of a water bear. Image: Eye of Science/Science Source

Billions of nearly indestructible microscopic organisms capable of surviving the extremes of outer space, freezing temperatures, and radiation.

Sleep tight.

Wired recently ran a great story about the water bear, scientifically known as the tardigrade, a creature found all around the world under our feet. Why are these little guys so interesting? A biologist puts it pretty bluntly.

“They are probably the most extreme survivors that we know of among animals,” said biologist Bob Goldstein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “People talk about cockroaches surviving anything. I think long after the cockroaches would be killed we’d still have dried water bears that could be rehydrated and be alive.”

Yes, rehydrated. So they're not really dead-brought-back-to-life, but more like living in a state of almost suspended animation called cryptobiosis.

We have a fondness for this little guy ourselves as we find him quite often in our wastewater analysis. Water bears indicate the age of sludge—the solid biological material collected during the wastewater treatment process. He's one of many creepy-crawlies we find that help us know if we are doing our jobs.

LIST: 8 BuzzFeed quizzes you'll probably never see

I can't believe how these things have taken off. BuzzFeed quizzes.

Which Willy Wonka character are you? Which bagel are you? What should your college major actually be?

BuzzFeed quizzes are all the rage. But while their topics really do run the gamut, we came up with eight you'll probably never see but we'd totally want to.

PHOTO: Safety first, top hats are a priority.

Quite dapper for a sewer tunnel tour, no?

These gents were friends of English civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette attending a tour of the main drainage works of his new London Sewage System in 1862.

Tours of anything similar today are accompanied by hard hats rather than top hats, but historical images like this do convey the significance of these infrastructural achievements.

Huzzah, ol' boy!