About The Initiative
The Toledo Waterways Initiative is a federally mandated environmental program to reduce pollution of the City of Toledo, Ohio’s waterways. TWI was created as the result of a Consent Decree handed down in 2001 by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio’s Western Division, located in Toledo. This Consent Decree settled an 11-year lawsuit between the City of Toledo and the U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA).
In July 2002, Toledo voters overwhelmingly approved an ordinance settling the lawsuit. That settlement requires the City to update its sewer and wastewater treatment facilities to eliminate or minimize the release of raw sewage into Swan Creek and the Ottawa and Maumee Rivers.
The 18-year series of improvements to upgrade the City’s sewer system is expected to cost more than $500 million. Funding for the program will come from an incremental increase of sanitary sewer rates beginning in 2002. In an effort to minimize the impact on ratepayers, the City aggressively is pursuing federal and state funding and grants.
Protecting Our Waterways: Reducing Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) Modern sewer systems have separate pipes for sewage and storm water. Sewage is transported to the wastewater treatment plant, and storm water is released directly into a ditch, stream or river.
About 20 percent of Toledo still is served by combined sewers – an old system that carries both sewage and storm water in the same pipe. Both the sewage and storm water are treated at the wastewater treatment plant. Under normal conditions, this does not present a problem. However, in the event of heavy rainfall, the system becomes overloaded. Storm water mixes with raw sewage then overflows into area waterways and sometimes backs up into residents’ homes.
The Toledo Waterways Initiative is an environmental program. It was not designed to eliminate the potential for basement backups during heavy rain events in the local area impacted by the project, but it may reduce the risk. The project does not address storm-water flooding, nor improve any storm-water conveyance facilities.
The Solution
Unfortunately, there is no “quick fix” to the City’s combined sewer overflow problem. It is a long-term problem that requires a long-term solution.
TWI’s Phase One, begun in 2002, involved a major expansion of the Bay View Wastewater Treatment Plant and major sewer revisions and pump station construction in the Point Place area along with extensive work in the River Road area.
TWI’s Phase Two began in 2009 and involves 25 projects to be implemented in the City’s neighborhoods near affected waterways as part of Toledo’s Long-Term Control Plan. Work is projected to continue through August 2020.
Also in this section …
The Plan (Long-Term Control Plan)
“The solution to the pollution caused by combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in portions of Toledo’s sewer system is set forth in the Toledo Waterways Initiative’s Long-Term Control Plan. …”
The Teams
“The successful completion of the Toledo Waterways Initiative will mark the culmination of a public – private relationship that traces back to TWI’s beginnings.”
The Reason
“Toledo is one of several hundred communities located primarily in the Northeast and Midwest under court order to cleanup polluted sewage discharges into waterways in their areas. These cleanups are required by Section 309 (e) of the U.S. Clean Water Act of 1972.”
The Progress
The first phase of the Toledo Waterways Initiative was mainly dedicated to enlarging the capacity of the Bay View Water Reclamation Plant as well as major sewer improvements in the Point Place and River Road areas. While this work was underway, the Team was also undertaking studies to characterize the flows in the Ottawa and Maumee Rivers and Swan Creek as well as developing a hydraulic model to predict the response of the sewer collection system to various rain events. These tools were used to develop the Long Term Control Plan to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the Ottawa and Maumee Rivers and Swan Creek during the second phase.
