100s of Wastewater Plants Discharge Pollutants to NE Ohio Lakes, Rivers

"CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's $3 billion Project Clean Lake is designed to one day capture and clean 98 percent of the 4.5 billion gallons of stormwater and sewage that it receives each year before it pours untreated into Lake Erie.

But even that federally mandated, 25-year program wouldn't have prevented pollutants from 236 wastewater treatment plants in Northeast Ohio from being discharged into our waterways over the past five years -- in violation of the Clean Water Act.

These violators represent about 60 percent of the certified wastewater treatment plants in Northeast Ohio, according to data obtained from the U.S. EPA's Discharge Monitoring Report web site."

James F. McCarty reports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer September 24, 2017, with Karl Schneider.