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Clean Water Lakewood

Overview

Clean Water Lakewood is a city program designed to modernize and improve Lakewood’s sewer infrastructure. The plan aims to achieve several goals:

  • Bring the city’s aging sewer infrastructure into compliance with federal and state clean-water regulations under the Clean Water Act.
  • Significantly reduce or eliminate untreated overflows into Lake Erie and Rocky River.
  • Modernize Lakewood’s sewer and storm water system so that it meets the demands of current and future growth.
  • Establish a fair and stable funding mechanism to maintain and upgrade sewer infrastructure.

In 2022, Lakewood entered into a Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice where the City agrees to bring its sewer system into alignment with the Clean Water Act.

History / Background

In the early 1900s, governments were focused on health and sanitation. Outbreaks of diseases like typhoid and cholera spurred the development of hospitals, sanitary sewers and drinking water treatment. It was during this time that Lakewood experienced a real estate boom thanks in part to the streetcar system and the completion of the Detroit-Superior Bridge.

The earliest sewers built in Lakewood during this time were combined sewers. Combined Sewers are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. The next iteration of sewer design came in the form of over-under sewers. These used a common trench and placed the storm sewer immediately above the sanitary sewer. In order to gain access the sanitary sewer for maintenance, metal invert plates were placed on the bottom of the manhole. These sewers were also designed to overflow during large rainfall events.

Lakewood’s wastewater treatment plant was built in 1916 at the lowest point in Lakewood, the Rocky River Valley, but only served a portion of the city. The city’s sewers were retrofitted in the 1930s to flow to an interceptor running along the lakefront and riverfront and directing more flow to the treatment plant. During periods of heavy rain or snow melt, our sewers were designed to release excess storm and sanitary water into the lake to avoid basement backups, causing combined sewer overflows.

As time went on, sewer design advanced to account for the problems created by combined and over-under sewers. Separated sewer systems are those that have both the storm and sanitary sewers that are placed in separate trenches. These sewers also age and require maintenance, but are the current standard for building sewers.

Lakewood is not alone in dealing with an aging system with a design that is no longer considered best practice. With the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, overflows in cities like ours across the country were required to be controlled in order to make public waters fishable and swimmable.

Integrated Wet Weather Improvement Plan (IWWIP)

Lakewood’s Integrated Wet Weather Improvement Plan (IWWIP) is the City’s long-term strategy to modernize its sewer infrastructure, reduce combined sewer overflows, and protect the water quality of Lake Erie and the Rocky River. The plan fulfills federal Clean Water Act requirements and supports the City’s consent decree with the U.S. EPA by outlining how Lakewood will replace aging sewers, manage stormwater more effectively, and upgrade key facilities. Its purpose is to reduce pollution, safeguard public health, and ensure that Lakewood’s sewer system can reliably serve the community well into the future.

The IWWIP contains a comprehensive, multi-phase package of engineering studies, system modeling, project designs, and a sequenced schedule of construction and monitoring activities. Major components include new storage and treatment facilities, targeted sewer rehabilitation, storm-sewer improvements, and ongoing water-quality testing to verify long-term performance. The plan guides the City’s investments over the coming decades, coordinating large capital projects with routine infrastructure work and providing a clear roadmap for compliance, transparency, and environmental stewardship.

IWWIP Documents

Phase 1

Phase 2

Links

Clean Water Lakewood News