AKRON — The City of Akron has recently demonstrated to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it will meet its water quality allocation, known as a waste load allocation, without having to build an enhanced high-rate treatment (EHRT) facility, city officials announced.
After many years of estimating the water quality impact of Akron’s newly built Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) tunnels, storage basins, sewer separations, green infrastructure and treatment facilities, Akron has been able to use actual operational updates and monitoring data to show that it will meet its water quality allocation. The analysis shows that Akron will do this without having to build the EHRT, a remote treatment facility along the Ohio and Erie Canal’s Towpath Trail next to the Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel. Akron estimates the EHRT would have cost over $265 million to build. Instead, Akron has shown that to meet water quality standards, it can convert the Cuyahoga Street Storage Facility from a storage basin to a primary clarification and disinfection treatment facility.
The Ohio EPA has reviewed Akron’s report and published a draft modification to Akron’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit to reflect the level of control of wet weather Akron must maintain to address its water quality allocation once all projects are operational. The draft modification was published Dec. 26 and is available for public comment for 30 days. Read the draft modification and submit comments at tinyurl.com/et77abrk…