Clean Water Works

Send us Fan Mail One careless shovel strike can turn a home project into a power outage or emergency situation, but it's easy to avoid! We sit down with Community Discharge Permit Program Specialist Rob Stoerkel to discuss Ohio 811—also known as OUPS, the “call before you dig” service that keeps homeowners, contractors, and field crews from hitting underground utility lines. We also talk abou...

Send us Fan Mail Pouring grease down the kitchen sink seems harmless until the day the drain slows to a crawl. Joe Boziak, a master plumber with decades in the trade, handles all of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s plumbing needs. We discuss fats, oils, and greases (FOG), how they can mess up your pipes, and why the old “just run hot water” advice can make the buildup worse.  Home-plum...

Send us Fan Mail UPDATE: This episode was recorded on July 1, 2026. On July 21, Ohio EPA announced it will NOT finalize a proposed general permit for data centers. For additional information on this please visit Ohio EPA's website . ********** ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE seems to be everywhere. Whether we're using a chatbot, saving files to the cloud, or asking Google a question, we're...

Send us Fan Mail Concrete channels, buried creeks, and straightened streams simplified urban development but decades later we see the side effects: faster water, steeper channels, collapsing streambanks, and pollution.  Manager of Stormwater Design Kristen Buccier and Project Manager Denis Zaharija explain the benefits of more recent, holistic stream design methods.  A stream is a living system se...

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Mark Christie, Director of Cuyahoga County's Office of Emergency Management, about severe weather in Northeast Ohio, damage assessments, and how recovery decisions get made fast. Mark gives some tips on preparing for hazards during thunderstorms, tornadoes, winter storms, and flooding that hits both rivers and basements, with info on ReadyNotify and the federal I...

Send us Fan Mail Mike and Donna report from the 19th annual Ohio Stormwater Conference in Sandusky, OH. The day's presentations touch on education, stormwater modeling and maintenance, and funding, and demonstrate how design choices and policy decisions can ripple across entire communities.  Our guests include: Erica Matheny, Tinker's Creek Watershed Partners Refka Abroug, Tinker's...

Send us Fan Mail April is National Native Plant Month, and in this episode we talk with Sustainability Specialist Kevin Harrison and Paul Kovalcik of our Stormwater Inspection & Maintenance (SWIM) department, unpacking what defines a "native plant" and why they matter for water quality and habitat. We talk about how native species support pollinators, and why losing host plants can i...

Send us Fan Mail A fallen log in a stream can serve as beneficial fish habitat or pose a flood hazard. Stormwater inspectors Kelsey Hickox and Andriana Hayes explain what Stormwater Inspection and Maintenance (SWIM) looks like and why the Sewer District pays so much attention to creeks, culverts, and stormwater basins. We also discuss urgent storm response and why field verification matters for ou...

Send us Fan Mail Rainfall can turn some roads into rivers. Construction Supervisor Joel Hill explains how his team keeps neighborhoods dry using basins, culverts, and stream restoration projects to manage downpours. Joel brings a rare perspective with his decade-plus working on massive tunnel projects and his pivot to the stormwater side of the Sewer District's work. We discuss hydrologic for...

Send us Fan Mail What actually leads a policy idea into becoming a clean-water milestone? We take you behind the scenes with Danielle Giannantonio, Senior Manager of State and Federal Legislative Affairs & Grants at the NEORSD, to map the practical path from bills to budgets to better infrastructure. Danielle shares how a Statehouse page job led to legislative aide work, a crash course in clea...

Send us Fan Mail Hey, it's hard to pass up a good pun. Even if we didn't talk much about sewer smells in this episode, we were excited to learn how our legal team moves billion‑dollar water projects forward with strategy, ethics, and empathy. Chief Legal Officer Eric Luckage explains how well‑designed contracts, early risk spotting, and clear and honest conversations with residents help...

Send us Fan Mail Freezing temperatures can test our municipal water systems as well as the pipes inside our homes. Water Commissioner Alex Margevicius explains how the Cleveland Division of Water keeps 1.4 million people supplied with safe drinking water when temperatures plunge and aging water mains face their toughest days of the year.  From Cleveland's offshore water intakes to your homes...

Send us Fan Mail A lake that learns can change a region. Sam Martin, Director of Communications and Engagement at Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA), shares how Lake Erie has become the world’s largest digitally-connected freshwater test bed—and why that matters for public health, utility costs, and the next wave of water-tech jobs.  Sam walks us through the water economy—everything from maritime logi...

Send us Fan Mail A new crew of superheroes, the Lake Erie League, is turning everyday systems into comic-book stories for kids and teachers to use in the classroom. Across eight origin tales, these northeast Ohio-inspired characters mirror very real aspects of the Sewer District's work, from massive tunneling machines whose creations tame storm overflows, to a miniaturized lab technician who...

Send us Fan Mail Art meets infrastructure! The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District partnered with the nonprofit creative-writing center Literary Cleveland to host a reading of "Odes to Infrastructure," a newly-published zine, right in the heart of our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant. It was a celebration of our essential-yet-often-unseen water systems and, of course, Lake Erie. S...

Send us Fan Mail Technology continues to transform how the Sewer District manages wastewater and stormwater.  Process Analyst Ron Maichle explains how the District's drone program evolved from emergency-response support to an essential tool for project planning and monitoring. Engineer Joe Reese demystifies the elaborate control systems that allow operators to monitor and manage entire treatm...

Send us Fan Mail The newly released 2025 Ohio Infrastructure Report Card delivers a sobering assessment of the systems we rely on daily but rarely think about. Ohio has made modest improvements since the last American Society of Civil Engineers' report in 2021, yet vulnerabilities persist. Sewer District employees (and ASCE members) Derek Vogel and Lita Laven walk us through the grades and ex...

Send us Fan Mail What does sustainability mean for a wastewater utility?  Sustainability Manager Marie Fechik-Kirk shares her thoughts on environmental stewardship at the Sewer District. Under Marie's guidance, the NEORSD has integrated sustainability into its everyday operations and engineering projects.  Listeners will also discover sustainability tips for their own homes to make an environ...

Send us Fan Mail A recent innovation, the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) has transformed from an emergency response to COVID-19 into a comprehensive early warning system for disease outbreaks. The NWSS monitors approximately 45% of the US population through over 1,400 sampling sites. Public health laboratories can analyze genetic material from the waste stream to detect the presenc...

Send us Fan Mail Mike is at the 18th annual Ohio Stormwater Conference, where nearly 1,000 environmental professionals gather to discuss flooding, erosion, and water quality advances—and new challenges. The conversation begins with sobering news about watershed organizations facing an uncertain future as they scramble to fill funding gaps in their programs. We also talk with the Ohio Public Works...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine standing in downtown Cleveland and gazing at Lake Erie just blocks away, yet feeling disconnected by an intimidating landscape of highways and parking lots. This frustrating paradox has defined Cleveland's relationship with its waterfront for decades. The Shore to Core to Shore Initiative is an ambitious and promising effort to reconnect Cleveland's downtown with...

Send us Fan Mail The Doan Brook Watershed Partnership (DBWP) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are collaborating on a stream-restoration project to address wall deterioration, improve fish habitat, and restore natural stream function through Cleveland's Cultural Gardens along MLK Boulevard. Sections of the channel's stone walls, built during the Works Progress Administration, have...

Send us Fan Mail Clevelanders might not know about a massive concrete structure hidden within Lakeview Cemetery. Standing 89 feet tall, Lakeview Dam represents both a marvel of 1970s engineering and a relic of outdated water-management approaches. Stormwater Program Manager Kim Colich gives some background on this imposing structure and explains how modern modeling and technology allow for differe...

Send us Fan Mail Horticulturalist Joe Dwyer is part of the Sewer District's Stormwater Inspection & Maintenance (SWIM) team.  "A large shade tree can take up to 4,000 gallons of stormwater throughout a year," Dwyer says, but problems with improper tree planting can reveal themselves often just as trees are reaching their prime environmental benefits. Joe highlights the importanc...

Send us Fan Mail Bedford, Ohio native Eddie Olshansky operates Trashfish, a volunteer organization focused on exploring and cleaning up the Cuyahoga River. Eddie talks about his personal journey, the importance of community involvement in environmental stewardship, the challenges of plastic pollution, and his ongoing efforts to improve the health of our local waterways. Follow Eddie on Instagram @...