Funding To Parma And Seven Hills For Improved Water Quality
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Board of Trustees awarded $7.2 million to 12 communities - including Parma and Seven Hills - as part of the agency’s newly-launched Member Community Infrastructure Program (MCIP).
MCIP assists communities with local infrastructure improvements – including new sewer infrastructure, repairs to reduce infiltration and inflow (leaking pipes) and remove failing septic systems from the environment – to improve the region’s water quality, public health and the environment.
The Sewer District continues to invest billions of dollars into large, regional infrastructure projects such as Project Clean Lake, the 25-year capital program to drastically reduce the amount of combined sewage entering local waterways during heavy rains. In addition to Project Clean Lake, the Sewer District is also investing in new relief sewers, making improvements to existing interceptor sewers and solving stormwater problems that not only cause flooding and streambank erosion, but negatively impact water quality.
"The projects we are funding through the Member Community Infrastructure Program will address impacts to human health and the environment from aging local sewer infrastructure,” said Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, Deputy Director of Watershed Programs. “We are very pleased to partner with these communities to move these great projects forward."
Grants awarded include:
- Seven Hills, Hemlock Creek Watershed Utility Improvement, $1,090,000
- Olmsted Falls, Columbia & Cook Sanitary Sewer Project - Phase 5, $600,000
- South Euclid, Grosvenor Infrastructure Improvement, Phase 2, $300,000
- Newburgh Heights, East 54th and Brow Avenue Sewer Separation, $400,000
- Garfield Heights, Northwest Neighborhood Sanitary/Storm Sewer Reconstruction - Phase 1, $717,533
- Berea, North End Sewer Rehabilitation, $735,023
- Moreland Hills, WEB Area Septic Conversion Project, $739,220
- Strongsville, Drake Road, Bowman Drive & Fetzer Drive Sanitary Sewer Project, $617,165
- Parma, Broadrock Court Sanitary Relief Sewer Connection, $250,000
- Cleveland, Rocky River Drive Sewer Replacement Project, $1,040,000
- Lyndhurst, Irene, Churchill, and Gordon I&I Reduction, $249,270
- Olmsted Township, Bagley Road Water & Sewer, $500,000
The cost for all 12 approved MCIP projects is $28,771,871. Member communities were required to support awarded projects with a minimum 25 percent contribution to the project’s cost; the remaining (up to) 75 percent is offered as a reimbursable grant.
“A regional approach to water quality is imperative to the health of not only our region, but our one million customers and thousands more who work, visit and recreate in Greater Cleveland,” said Julius Ciaccia, CEO. “The Member Community Infrastructure Program, as well as the Regional Stormwater Management Program, allow a portion of ratepayer revenues to flow back to their communities for important local projects.”
Many of the projects approved for 2017 include the elimination of Household Sewage Treatment Systems, or septic tanks. These projects, located in Seven Hills, Olmsted Falls, Moreland Hills, Strongsville, Parma and Olmsted Township, will result in approximately 900 new customers for the Sewer District and the elimination of the associated water quality impacts of such systems.
More information about MCIP is online at https://www.neorsd.org/mcip.php