Akron working to comply with federal consent decree, finishes single largest construction project in history

Akron is in the midst of a massive, $1.4 billion Federal Consent Decree to clean up its sewers and waterways. The decree, mandated by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, will put the city in compliance with the Clean Water Act and end sewage dumping into the Cuyahoga River by 2028. Communications Director Heather Bolestridge says the project, “Akron Waterway’s Renwed!” is focused on a better, greener infrastructure for the future.

“Basically, we want to make it so people can come out and enjoy our waterways,” Bolestridge said. “We want people to come to our parks and don’t want them to worry about the cleanliness of our water.”

Bolestridge says the project is fixing years of environmental damage caused by outdated sewage overflow points. When sewage overflows, the waste dumps into the city’s waterways. The city is one of many in the U.S required to fix its sewer and waterway infrastructure. There are roughly 770 cities in the same predicament.

Akron initially received the consent decree in 2009, but Bolestridge says then Mayor Don Plusquellic felt the city was being targeted by the federal government.

“We have the most stringent regulations out of all of those 770 cities,” Bolestridge said. “We are allowed to have zero untreated overflows in a typical year and we have to go in and inspect every sewer in Akron every five years, most cities are every 10.”

Bolestridge says Plusquellic sewed the federal government, locking the city into a five-year legal battle before finally agreeing to the consent decree. During that time, Akron Waterway’s Renwed! put together a Long Term Control Plan, showcasing the blueprint for meeting the EPA’s standards.

Alongside the LTCP, the city started taking advantage of the EPA’s recently introduced Integrated Planning.

“That’s where you look at all of this grey infrastructure and see if there’s a way to actually make it green,” Bolestridge said.

She adds the planning revealed these grey structures, highlighting a variety of basins, underground tunnels and green infrastructures such as conveyance and storm water wetlands. Akron submitted the plan in 2015 making greener modifications to the Long Term Control Plan.

The plan is looking to decrease the amount of storage basins in Akron from 10 down to five, increase the amount of sewer separations from five to thirteen with a sustainable system and reduce the number of tunnels from two to one. In total, the project could potentially save the city $300 million.

Highlighted in the plan are the utilization of rain gardens, bump-ins and bio-detainment ponds to aid in achieving clean and passable water quality standards. In total, Akron is conducting 23 different projects under the plan.

Akron completed the Ohio Canal Interceptor Channel in Aug. 2018, it’s the largest and the single largest project in Akron’s history at $184 million. The price tag is roughly $68 million less than the engineers original estimate from a bid by Kenny Obyashi Construction.  The massive tunnel is 27 feet in diameter and runs a little over one mile.  

“The tunnel can hold 25 million gallons of storm water and sewage,” Bolestridge said. “The tunnel will take on storm water and control nine of the overflows from the Ohio and Erie Canal and Cuyahoga River.”

The tunnel was dug by a massive tunnel boring machine “Rosie,” promptly named after World War II cultural icon, Rosie the Riveter.  

“The construction company (Kenny Obayashi) told us the machine would be built by all local manufacturers,” Bolestridge says.

The machine was manufactured in Solon with all of the bearings are from Timken including the 3,000 lbs. barring, we have gaskets that go in-between each of the rings in the tunnel from Mogadore, all of the segments that make up each ring in the tunnel were made in Macedonia and the white shield and stickers on the machine were manufactured in Youngstown.

“It’s a big commitment,” Bolestridge said.

Cascade Valley Park executive director and local historian Don Gordon Jr. is working closely with Akron Waterway’s Renewed, the tunnel runs directly through the park and showcases the machine. Gordon alongside Bolestridge provide trolley tours of the tunnel for residents.

“They’ve had a lot of engineering students come and observe, cause you can watch the history channel and see these machines work across the world and we have it here,” Gordon said. “This is only going to happen once in a lifetime, it’s a unique experience.”

With the tunnel finished, the overall waterway project is 60 percent complete with several projects starting in spring 2019. They’re currently preparing the tunnel for achievement of full operation by next summer.

The project is funded through federal loans and will be paid by Akron residents which include ratepayers in Fairlawn, Springfield, Coventry, Copley, Bath, Cuyahoga Falls, Tallmadge and Mogadore. Each of these cities have seen hikes in their service bills.

“We do get low-interest loans from the state, but everything is being paid by ratepayers,” Bolestridge said. She breaks down Smart Financing, a method of making loan repayments cheaper overtime: 

The city continues to look for ways to reduce the $1.4 billion price tag. 

Program Manager Pat Gsellman discussed an amending the projects design at an Akron City Council meeting in June, estimating they could shave $75 million off the bill. Gsellman detailed the use of green infrastructure systems to replace some of the water basins.

Another amendment would change one of the storm water treament systems for a new system. Engineers found through testing that the new treatment center could lower costs and reduce fees to maintain, while at the same time providing healthier plan environments.

The deadline set by the EPA for consent decree is October 2027. After the work is finished, an additional year of reporting to the agency is required before checking Akron off its list.

Since the waterway’s project began, wildlife is coming back to the Cuyahoga River, most notably the Great Blue Heron. The heron’s left after pollution killed off their food supply, fish.