Report: Ohio’s infrastructure is mid.
2025 Infrastructure Report Card’s “C” grade and how our sewer, stormwater work compare
On June 25, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Ohio Council of Sections released its 2025 Report Card for Ohio’s Infrastructure and the grades are in: Ohio’s overall grade has improved to a “C”, up from a “C-” in 2021.
The statewide scoring of 17 different infrastructure systems — not just water, sewer and stormwater, but also roads, bridges, ports, parks, and more — puts Ohio right at the national C average, and the state report card reflects realities you’d come to expect from report-card conversations you might have had in your own life:
Progress, struggles, and areas that need attention.
It’s noteworthy that two areas that scored slightly higher than that US average — wastewater and stormwater — are ones we have been committed to for a very long time.
The importance of the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card
Since 1998, ASCE has prepared a comprehensive assessment of the nation’s major infrastructure categories every four years, and we’ve contributed our data to every one of them, supporting advocacy and accuracy in understanding the state of our systems.
The 2025 national report card was released in March, but Ohio’s detailed analysis dropped just this week. Our own CEO Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells spoke at ASCE’s press event in Columbus June 25, offering insight about the natural and human-made systems we manage and how proper investment is needed to underscore their value.
“This year’s Report Card shows once again: Clean water infrastructure is essential to the economic vitality of all our communities,” she said. “Maintaining existing and building new infrastructure is expensive, and we need to continually focus on ensuring we have the resources necessary to do this work.”
Here’s where Ohio’s sewer and stormwater grades ranked, where our efforts are making progress, and why sustainable investment is so important.
Ohio wastewater: C- (National: D+)
“As for addressing aging infrastructure in Ohio, most communities only address it when it fails,” Ohio’s Wastewater Executive Summary read. “Utility rate structures typically address operation and maintenance of their systems rather than proactive capital improvement.”
But in Northeast Ohio, we’ve been able to manage operating costs and reduce the rate of increases for decades while investing in long-term capital projects protecting water quality, especially reducing combined sewer overflows.
The regional sewer network functions best when local communities have resources to improve their own systems, and our creativity is advancing that cause as well, Dreyfuss-Wells said.
“We know, in partnership with our member communities, that we have significant issues with aging infrastructure,” she shared.
“We’ve completed Local Sewer System Evaluation Studies to support our member communities and identified needs totaling over $3.4 billion to address aging local infrastructure. This includes addressing flooded basements, sanitary sewer overflows, and clean water issues adversely impact the quality-of-life of Northeast Ohio residents,” local issues our unique Member Community Infrastructure Program funding is designed to address.
Ohio stormwater: D+ (National: D)
Ohio has more than 130 stormwater utilities, the 6th most in the country. And while stormwater utilities have raised rates since the last report, according to Ohio’s latest, the increases have not kept pace with the cost of solving common stormwater issues like flooding and erosion.
Significant advancements in data modelling in even the last five years show wetter, warmer, wilder weather patterns, and while success stories emerge every year, the regional cost to fully address long-standing stormwater issues in Northeast Ohio tops $1.4 billion according to our master plans.
“With the looming expiration of funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, sewer and stormwater infrastructure gains are in jeopardy, risking our most precious resource — an abundant supply of fresh, clean water” said Dreyfuss-Wells. “And we collectively cannot let this happen.”
Funding the future
Our job at the Sewer District is to protect public health and water quality, and we have made huge progress over the last 50 years. The Cuyahoga River’s comeback is a testament to that. And Dreyfuss-Wells emphasized that was no accident.
“It was through the collective efforts of many in Greater Cleveland, including our ratepayers, and support from the State of Ohio [assisting] public water utilities in funding clean water infrastructure by creating programs like Ohio BUILD and H2Ohio.”
She also noted the importance of the Public Works State Capital Improvement Program and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, an essential loan and grant financing tool that helps us and our member communities address their clean water infrastructure challenges.
Commitment comes at a cost. Over the next 10 years, we at the Sewer District will invest $1.5 billion in wastewater and almost $400 million for regional stormwater management. “All these funding sources and creativity, however, are not enough to address the needs.”
Dreyfuss-Wells concluded: “At the heart of all the amenities we enjoy, solid and functioning sewer and stormwater infrastructure is a necessity, and that’s done through continued investment in all our State’s pipes, streams, treatment plants, and pump stations.”
