Early morning storm sets off overflow at Edgewater Beach
Combined sewer discharge results in swimming advisory at Edgewater Beach, first overflow since last June
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has posted a public advisory this morning at Edgewater Beach due to a combined sewer overflow (CSO) event, the result of elevated storm levels that briefly exceeded the capacity of the sewer system, discharging a combination of sewage and stormwater into Lake Erie.
Visitors — particularly children, the elderly, and those in ill health — are advised to avoid contact with the water and wood debris while the advisory is posted.
The last overflow at this location occurred on June 29, 2024. While the number of combined sewer overflow events continues to decrease annually, they do still occur, raising questions about the response, causes, and improvements — both ongoing and future plans.
How we respond to overflow events
Most immediately, Sewer District crews sample water twice daily (collecting afternoon samples in addition to the already daily morning collection) at 10 locations at Edgewater Beach — five locations close to the beach, and five further from the shore but still within common swimming range — beginning today.
The samples will be tested to determine if E. coli bacteria levels are elevated. Results will be available 24 hours after the sample is collected. Once these daily samples are below the federal and state advisory standards of 235 (which equates to colony counts of E. coli per 100 milliliters of water), the advisory will be lifted, and the Sewer District will discontinue the twice-daily sampling.
You can learn more about Edgewater water quality daily predictions and E. coli test results at neorsd.org/beaches.
In addition to these tests, sewer maintenance crews act to restore the beach aera closest to the outfall, keeping beachgoers away from the area until weather conditions allow for safe restoration activities.
What causes combined sewer overflows
Much of Cleveland exists atop a combined sewer system, a network of sewers that carry sanitary sewage (waste from your house) and stormwater in the same pipes to maximize the volume of water being collected, moved, and eventually treated.
When heavy storms produce large volumes of surface runoff, combined sewers may not be able to handle the increase. For this reason, rather than having sewage back up into homes or treatment plants, relief points were designed in the system years ago to release the combined flow to the environment. Those points are called combined sewer overflows, or CSOs.
While state of the art in the late 1800s, combined sewers and their outfalls became a challenge as development advanced in the first half of the 20th century. More frequent overflows were the result, and changes were needed.
Improvements to the Edgewater sewer system
Built in the late 1880s, the combined sewer outfall at Edgewater discharged a mixture of sewage and stormwater into Lake Erie approximately 40 to 50 times per year through the mid-1970s. That’s no longer the case.
Since its inception in 1972, the Sewer District has invested over $5 billion in sewer and stormwater projects across the entire service area. Early work included improving and building new infrastructure, such as the Northwest Interceptor, which resulted in combined sewer overflow discharges significantly decreasing, particularly here at the Edgewater outfall where events now occur an average of less than twice a year.
Built in the late 1880s, the combined sewer outfall at Edgewater discharged a mixture of sewage and stormwater into Lake Erie approximately 40 to 50 times per year through the mid-1970s. That’s no longer the case.
The Edgewater portion of the Northwest Interceptor begins at W. 117 and ends at the Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant located by the Edgewater Marina, collecting sewage from homes and businesses on the west side of Cleveland to Kamm’s Corner.
Eliminating other combined sewer overflows in the region
One of the Sewer District’s largest capital expenditures is Project Clean Lake, a $3 billion, 25-year infrastructure investment program to address combined sewer overflows. Existing in nearly 800 cities — including Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, and Cincinnati — combined sewers were once a state-of-the-art waste management system. Now, they must be addressed to reduce the volume of pollution entering waterways. In the Sewer District’s service area, CSO discharge points are in Cleveland and inner-ring suburbs, including Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Brooklyn, and East Cleveland.
Since the start of Project Clean Lake in 2011, the Sewer District’s goal is to reduce combined sewer overflows from 4.5 billion gallons to under 500 million gallons annually by 2036. To date, the Sewer District has eliminated about 1.7 billion gallons of combined sewer overflow and anticipates the elimination of an additional 300 million gallons by the end of 2024 when the Westerly Storage Tunnel is fully activated. Further, because of Project Clean Lake and other capital investments, the Sewer District has successfully reduced combined sewer overflow discharge points from 126 to 112.
Project Clean Lake includes, in part, the construction of seven large-scale storage tunnels large enough for a semi-truck to drive over 20 miles:
- Euclid Creek ($213M, now online)
- Dugway ($155M, now online)
- Doan Valley ($155M, now online)
- Westerly ($146M, now online)
- Shoreline ($223M, complete in 2025)
- Southerly ($358M, now under construction, complete in 2029)
- Big Creek ($239M, design and construction 2027–2033)
The Sewer District is now actively capturing and treating nearly two billion additional gallons of combined sewage annually since the start of Project Clean Lake in 2011.
