BUZZ: Where poo and pop culture collide, we are there. Watch Jessica take @BuzzFeed's poo quiz.

As your trusted authority for all things poo and pop culture, we considered it an obligation.

When BuzzFeed posted a "How poo obsessed are you?" quiz, we wondered—based on our areas of expertise—exactly how we'd fare in the final tally. We believed it would be irresponsible of us not to take it.

So we interviewed our own Community Relations Specialist Jessica Shutty, asking her to take the quiz (with no advanced knowledge of the questions). Her honesty and humor are unmatched in our social media archives, so enjoy the exchange.



In a related note, you can request a guest speaker on poo, wastewater, sustainability, stormwater, and a host of many other topics, whether humorous or professional or both.

WATCH: Reading Rainbow's visit to a sewage treatment plant reminds us how awesome LeVar Burton is

If you watched Reading Rainbow as a kid, or if you're still tuned in to today's incarnation of the PBS classic, then this episode proves the theme song's line, "I can go anywhere."

Host LaVar Burton takes a trip to and through a wastewater treatment plant. And while some technology showcased here differs slightly from how we operate in Cleveland, the process is largely the same, and the result is clear, fresh, safe water.

But you don't have to take our word for it.

WATCH: Why we do what we do.

Cleveland has amazing water resources.

And while they are so visible that they are easily taken for granted, there are also unseen resources that help make sure our lakes, rivers, and water quality are protected.

This moving #MyWaterLegacy video from the Water Environment Federation was shown at WEFTEC—a huge national water conference—this week, and we believe it showcases why we are so proud to serve our customers and our region.

What do you think?

RELATED LINKS:

• CAREERS: Our latest job openings and career resources
• QUICK CLIPS: See all our 2-minute-or-less videos about our water-quality work

WATCH: Kids asked Christen, "How can you stand the smell of wastewater?"

How can wastewater treatment plant workers spend hours around sewage and not get overwhelmed by the smell? Former Treatment Plant Operator and current manager Christen Wood gets that question a lot, and she said it's all science.

WATCH: Appreciating clean-water history, future is all about keeping it real

We know it's gross, but it's true!

One hundred years ago, the earliest Cleveland sewers were designed to do little more than carry sewage away from the city, discharging it untreated directly into Lake Erie.

Untreated. Right into Lake Erie.

It wasn't until around 1920 that any kind of wastewater treatment began taking shape at the points where sewers met the Cleveland shoreline. And even into the 1960s, pollution and a lack of regulation plagued water quality, until everything changed in 1969.

Besides the shock of hearing gramps say the word "poop," Billy's reaction in the video is common to what we often hear when we talk about the history of clean water in our region. The work it takes to transport wastewater and treat it safely is complicated and costly, but critical. Appreciating our “sewer history” makes the current challenges clearer and opportunities more exciting.

RELATED STORIES:

• #SewerU: Enroll in our clean-water history workshop Sewer University 5/20
• Roadshows: Our look at the next 5 years is coming to a community near you
• OPEN HOUSE: Be there for the number 1 event in the number 2 business September 17

WATCH: Flush o' the Irish? Kelsey shows us green dye is for more than St. Patrick's Day.

Chicago can have its green river. Water Quality and Industrial Surveillance Investigator Kelsey Amidon shows us how we go green (green dye, actually) to protect water quality.

Fluorescent dye helps our investigators trace the source and destination of flows in our streams and sewers, and the glowing-green dye is even eco-friendly.

WATCH: "A business is more than that. It's a person, who had an idea, a vision."

Business owners learn about upcoming @neorsd projects.

Infrastructure that lasts beyond a generation is a huge investment. Few often realize it's small businesses that help make it possible.

The Business Opportunity Program is a Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District effort to expand contracting opportunities to small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses (M/W/SBEs) across the region.

"Over the next several years, the Sewer District will invest billions of dollars in sewer infrastructure," said Contract Compliance Manager Tiffany Jordan. "So, there are opportunities for businesses of all sizes in our region."

RELATED LINKS:

• REGISTER: Apply today for our Business Opportunity Program certification
• RECAP: #2016outreach event draws overflow crowd to hear regional construction forecast

WATCH: When we sense a disturbance in the Force, things tend to get messy. #StarWars

We don't think this is the Force George Lucas or J.J. Abrams had in mind. Still, clean water wouldn't be the same without it.

Our own treatment-plant Jedi Christen Wood shows us how force and the rarely-seen sludge "explosion" helps keep a sewer line clear and gives the Death Star's demise a run for its money.

RELATED STORIES:

• SPACE: How do astronauts pee in outer space?
• STAR WARS: "The flush awakens," 9 questions about Star Wars, sewers and sanitation
• TECH: How do toilets work on the International Space Station?

SPACE: "May the force pee with you," water recycling on the Space Station

It may not be a Star Wars galaxy far far away, but when astronauts are far from home, water is a life force.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield shows us how the water flows on the International Space Station, featuring a closed-loop treatment system in which the water astronauts use—even their wastewater—is recycled and made safe for drinking.

Many on earth are surprised to learn the water they flush is treated in a similar—but much larger—water cycle: The same water that flows down your toilet ultimately makes its way back to the environment, the common source for your drinking water at home. In Cleveland, the water cycle includes Lake Erie where we discharge treated water and from which Cleveland Water draws its clean-water supply.

It's the same cycle. The Space Station's is just much further from home.

RELATED STORIES:

• SPACE: How do astronauts pee in outer space?
• STAR WARS: "The flush awakens," 9 questions about Star Wars, sewers and sanitation
• TECH: How do toilets work on the International Space Station?

#TBT: Yes, THAT James Earl Jones narrated this 1978 documentary about the Cuyahoga River

The melodious tones of James Earl Jones' golden pipes grace the narration track of this Cuyahoga River documentary from 1978.

This clip features JEJ reading text from an infamous Time Magazine article that followed the 1969 river fire.

Cuyahoga (1978)
#TBT: "Some river! Chocolate brown, bubbling with subsurface gases. It oozes rather than flows." Hear the one and only James Earl Jones read from the 1969 Time magazine article that followed the Cuyahoga River fire.
Posted by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District on Thursday, October 29, 2015

Learn more about the 1969 blaze, or the 12 or more other times the river burned.

WATCH: The not-so-terrifying but very creepy-cool tunnels deep under Southerly / #h2olloween

Some of the access tunnels in the bowels of the Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant in Cuyahoga Heights date back to the plant's grand opening in 1928.

Operator Christen Wood took us for a quick tour of the sprawling and sometimes spooky underground system, just in time for Halloween.

TRENDING: Never forget, it was a toilet that made time travel possible. #BackToTheFutureDay

Back To The Future's Doc Brown and his illustration of the time-travel-enabling flux capacitor.

The future has arrived. As the past. In the present. Thanks to a toilet.

October 21, 2015 has been declared Back To The Future Day, a day of '80s sci-fi nostalgia, the date to which Back To The Future's Marty McFly travels in the second movie of the trilogy in hopes of rescuing his future family.

What made the films' time travel possible was the flux capacitor. What made the flux capacitor possible? Remember, it was inventor Doc Brown slipping and falling off his toilet:

Sure, the flush toilet was considered the greatest medical advancement of the last 200 years. But in the BTTF universe, it became—more importantly—the greatest inspiration of the entire space-time continuum.

Heavy. We know.

RELATED STORIES

• TECH: Bath to the future? Toilet tech predictions for the year 2030 
• MOVIES: Lake Erie Sharknado? Unlikely. Raining sea lampreys? Plausible.
• MEDIA: WMMS host Alan Cox wants to attend our Sewer University?

WATCH: Christen and Ryan's two-minute tour shows you what happens after the flush

How do you take 280 acres of tanks, towers, and tunnels, and a process that takes more than 24 hours from start to finish, and trim it down to less than three minutes?

Christen and Ryan give it a try.

Ryan Melton and Christen Wood are operators at our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant in Cuyahoga Heights, and they wanted to give folks an intro to the work it takes to turn sewage into clean, safe lake water.

Pay attention. They move quick, but by the end, they give viewers three key steps in the wastewater treatment process.

VIDEO: How to make your own lava lamp

Turn a few simple household products into this great kids craft, Sunday afternoon project, or science-class demo.



Leslie tells us how density and reactions help make these ingredients move like the lava lamps of the 1970s.

RELATED STORIES:

• EVENTS: See this experiment and more at our 9/19 Open House

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."

WATCH: Here's what a 260-foot crane ride looks like.

When you talk about underground work, "heights" are not something that comes to mind. But to get into and out of our Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station project in Bratenahl, workers need to take this crane ride that may leave some of you catching your breath.

BUSINESS: Huge investments, small businesses, and local success stories #SmallBizWeek

Infrastructure that lasts beyond a generation is a huge investment. Few often realize it's small businesses that help make it possible.

This week is National Small Business Week, and we join local voices in support of small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses that contribute to our Northeast Ohio economy.

"I’m very proud of the effort the Sewer District has made to engage and attract small businesses," said Tiffany Jordan, Sewer District Manager of Contract Compliance. "Just last year, more than $45 million has been paid to local small businesses, which includes Minority-owned, Women-owned and Small Business Enterprises."

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: What is water worth? "Business case" goes well beyond dollar signs / #CleanWater2015

One can not solve the world's water problems in an hour. But Edwin Pinero used his hour to highlight five components of real solutions to the world's biggest water challenges.

Pinero kicked off The City Club of Cleveland's 2015 Year of Clean Water speaker series, and he was a fine voice to do so. He's the Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Public Affairs of Veolia Water North America, a firm focused on water, wastewater, and energy resources and resource recovery.

The biggest issue we face, in his words: "We understand water is important," he said, "but we lack understanding of the connection between water and every other aspect of our lives."

WATCH: More than words, Christen captures our love for clean water perfectly. #LoveCleanWater

Related stories:

• VALENTINES: Print and send your own #LoveCleanWater valentines
• READ: Read our love letter to water
• PICS: I found love at a wastewater treatment plant
• WATCH: Catch all of our one-minute-or-less Quick Clips