{"id":176957,"date":"2025-09-23T18:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:55:07","slug":"raw-sewage-and-public-relations-the-real-story-behind-edgewater-beachs-upcoming-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176957\/","title":{"rendered":"Raw sewage and public relations: The real story behind Edgewater Beach\u2019s upcoming fix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District recently announced seemingly complex plans to stop raw sewage from flowing onto Edgewater Beach<\/a>, but as the Today in Ohio podcast<\/a> crew points out, that sewage will still be dumped into Lake Erie.<\/p>\n

The sewer district\u2019s original announcement gave the impression that new technology would solve the problem Edgewater Beach, where swimming is prohibited following big rain storms because raw sewage rolls down the beach and into the water. What\u2019s happening is not that complicated, podcast hosts noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, everything they\u2019ve said about this is pretty much nonsense,\u201d said Chris Quinn. They\u2019re capping it and they\u2019re pushing that sewage somewhere else. And they have to do a little bit of work to absorb the extra until it can flow out. This has got nothing to do with new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s actually happening? Laura Johnston explained the mechanics: \u201cIt\u2019s redirecting the overflow to the Westerly treatment plant. It\u2019s adding this 1,400-foot long tunnel, and that should be able to send it further down the pipe that connects to that treatment plant. It\u2019s about a half mile east of the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t part of the original \u201cProject Clean Lake\u201d consent decree with the EPA, which has greatly reduced the number of days when sewage gets spewed into the lake. It\u2019s an additional measure driven by a specific concern about Cleveland\u2019s most popular swimming site. <\/p>\n

Quinn got straight to the point about the real motivation: \u201cThey\u2019re just embarrassed because every time it happens, we have a story about it. There is raw sewage — crap — on our most important swimming beach. And they finally got so embarrassed. They figured, okay, let\u2019s spend some money and cap that outfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hosts made clear that the sewage coming from Northeast Ohio toilets and showers isn\u2019t being eliminated from Lake Erie\u2014it\u2019s simply being redirected to a less visible location. <\/p>\n

Johnston described the project as providing \u201cmore time for the gates at the Westerly plan to open to relieve the pressure to the overall system,\u201d comparing it to \u201cunclogging a bathroom tub drain.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the hosts were glad to see action being taken to protect Edgewater Beach, they were clear-eyed about the limitations of this approach. Johnston provided an important public health reminder that goes beyond the sewage overflow issue: <\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be clear, anytime it rains a heavy rain like that, even if we\u2019re not talking about stormwater overflows, there\u2019s pesticides on lawns, there\u2019s stuff in creeks,\u201d Johnston saidm All of that washes into the lake. \u201cIt is not a great idea to swim in Lake Erie after a giant rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The podcast highlights how public pressure and media attention can drive infrastructure improvements, even when they\u2019re not required by regulatory agreements. The embarrassment of having raw sewage on a popular beach ultimately proved more powerful than environmental regulations alone.<\/p>\n

Listen to the discussion here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to full \u201cToday in Ohio\u201d episodes<\/a> where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District recently announced seemingly complex plans to stop raw sewage from flowing onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-176957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}