WATER: How many tests in one year? Almost 200,000 help protect our lake.

West Virginia's water-contamination saga is shining the spotlight on water quality, regulations, contaminants and public health.

Clean water is at the heart of our work, but our attention is commonly focused on the wastewater side of the water cycle. How do we monitor our treatment processes and the environment to make sure the water we're releasing to Lake Erie is safe?

Tests. Lots and lots of tests. In 2013, our Analytical Services department—our biologists, chemists and laboratory analysts—conducted nearly 200,000 tests, averaging more than 530 separate tests every day. That includes tests conducted on more than 25,000 samples collected from streams, beaches, and our treatment plants.

Here's a closer look at our lab stats from last year:

MEDIA: Golden Globes red carpet soaked with sewage. Please stop snickering.

Last night's Golden Globes red carpet included a cameo appearance no one expected: Water.

On Sunday afternoon, Ryan Seacrest tweeted a photo of a flooded red carpet, caused by either a sprinkler system malfunction or a sewage leak.

huge water leak on #goldenglobes red carpet...Bev Hills fire trying to clean up pic.twitter.com/70dwJzzwYR
— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) January 12, 2014

The Hollywood Reporter indicated the leak was a result of a fire sprinkler, but several other media outlets referencing the same story said it actually was a burst wastewater pipe that "flooded the crimson walkway with black sewage."

Whether water or wastewater, the story shines a spotlight on the importance of (and challenges facing) reliable water infrastructure, something we take very seriously. As for the humor in the potential that it was indeed sewage, well, we'll leave that to Twitter.

A sewage line burst on the red carpet last night at the Golden Globes. If that isn't symbolism I don't know what is.
— Girrl Genius (@GirrlGenius) January 13, 2014

PIC: You never know what creatures you'll find in the sludge

Image by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

O the wonderful world under the microscope.

Our Biologist Carrie Millward sent us this image of a non-biting midge larvae she found in a sample of solid material (sludge) in our treatment process. They look scary, but they're common in wastewater. As they grow up, they become a good indicator of water quality.

We'll need to add this one to our list of scariest-looking microscopic creepy-crawlies for sure. Thanks, Carrie!

WEIRD: Sewer clogged by a pile of undergarments [facepalm here]

One of the most common sewer clogs in many cities sewer systems recently has been disposable wipes. They don't play nice with your plumbing many wastewater treatment systems.

Neither do underpants.

Yes, true story—this one out of the UK—Severn Trent Water reports that a sewer in the town of Shropshire was clogged and causing backups, until crews discovered and removed the culprit: "piles of pants that had been flushed down a toilet, somewhere nearby."

WOW: Bubbling tanks, frigid temps result in wondrous icy landscape

Well that's not something we see every day.

These open-air aeration tanks inject air bubbles into the wastewater during the treatment process at our Southerly plant, but this event is something rarely seen before.

Here's what the tanks look like in normal conditions (left image), bubbling and swirling to support microorganisms that help consume germs in the water.

But as temps bottomed out last night (above), nearing almost 40 degrees below zero with the wind chill, the surfaces froze, but water continued to bubble through holes in the ice. The result is an amazing array of ice pillars silhouetted against the morning sky in Cuyahoga Heights.

Does the ice affect this part of the treatment process? Yes and no, Wastewater Plant Operator in Training Christen Wood told me.

"The air is in the channel to encourage mixing and prevent freezing," she said, but the "insanely cold" temps like recently are very rare. The ice "probably will even melt during the day today. The microorganisms themselves are harder to grow in the winter, so we keep a higher percentage of them around all winter long" to compensate.

She added that the wastewater coming into the plant is fairly warm already when compared to the environment around it, and that helps "keep the bugs alive until spring."

Hat tip to Southerly's own Nick Fillipelli for the photo, and to Christen Wood for passing it our way.

TIPS: How to build an igloo. Plus 7 other ways to protect home, self during deep freeze

Image credit wikipedia

Social media across Ohio is teeming with all sorts of winter tips, and they're good ones based on the deep freeze hitting us today.

Here are eight more handy winter resources, from plumbing safety to traveling tips, including two that might not have made other local lists.

PUP: Dogs tend to poop in alignment with Earth's magnetic field, study finds

If you thought your dog was picky when it came to him finding the perfect spot for his business, a new study suggests he might have an excuse.

Researchers in Prague have concluded dogs have a tendency to poop along a north-south axis that lines up with the Earth's magnetic field.

Lest you think this is just some baseless claim, this team did their homework, examining 70 dogs, 37 breeds, 5,582 urinations, and almost 2,000 defecations over a two-year period.

Scientists said the research opens new doors into understanding "organisms' use of magnetic fields for direction, as well as magnetic fields produced by living organisms."

It's interesting to us because we want dog-owners to be responsible and pick up after their pets. It's polite and protects water quality. Maybe this new report will help homeowners know where to place the signs on their tree lawns.

REVIEW: Can we sum up 365 days in just 8 topics? Worth a try.

We penned 120 blog posts in 2013, highlighting projects, issues, progress and humor to help customers better understand our work. Here were some of our top stories and how we covered them. Thanks to Mike Uva for the recap.

Mackenzie finishes big dig

We celebrated our 1,500-ton Tunnel Boring Machine’s successful three-mile excavation of the Euclid Creek Tunnel, completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Mackenzie was named “International Project of the Year” by the Tunnelling Association of Canada.