CLEVELAND — Following a brief storm that struck the Cleveland area on Sunday, the water quality remained poor Monday morning at Edgewater Park, the Northeast Ohio Sewer District said.
When water quality is poor, swimming is not advised, especially for children, the elderly and those in ill health, according to the Sewer District.
The water quality at Villa Angela and Huntington Beaches was said to be good as of Monday morning.
According to the Northeast Ohio Sewer District, an advisory was issued at 11:55 a.m. on Sunday due to a combined sewer overflow. The district said that a combination of storm and sewer water discharged into Lake Erie. The organization said that Sunday morning’s rainfall exceeded the capacity of the sewer system.
Four combined sewer overflow events occurred at Edgewater in 2020, the latest being in October, according to the sewer district.
For decades, sewage backed into lake Erie dozens of times a year. In 1983, the Northwest Interceptor was constructed, which reduced the frequency of such events to once a year, according to the Sewer District. But the organization said that in the past five years, combined sewer overflows have occurred more frequently.
The Northeast Ohio Sewer District said in May that it made improvements in hopes of reducing the frequency of combined sewer overflow events.
“For nearly 50 years, the Sewer District has invested $5 billion in sewer and stormwater projects across the entire service area. Our early work included improving and building infrastructure,” Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, CEO of the Sewer District, said in May. “As a result of recent work, upgrades to the Northwest Interceptor will likely reduce the volume and frequency of combined sewer overflows at the beach.”
According to the National Weather Service, .18 inches of rain fell at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport on Sunday.
