City of Lakewood Seeking Community Input on the Clean Water Act Next Steps

The City of Lakewood invites all residents and property owners (residential and business) to a community meeting regarding the city’s road ahead for Clean Water Act compliance.  The community meeting will take place on Tuesday, December 4th at 7:00 p.m at the Lakewood High School cafeteria, 14100 Franklin Boulevard.

Lakewood is confronting the challenge of updating its unique, 100-year-old sewer system to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act through active enforcement by Ohio EPA and US EPA. The Clean Water Act of 1972 (the CWA) established the basic structure for the regulation of discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and set quality standards for surface waters.

The CWA outlawed the discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters without a specific permit via the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). These permits are issued by the Ohio EPA. The City of Lakewood’s NPDES permits are issued for a five-year period. Lakewood’s current permit expires in 2019. The current NPDES permit requires the City to submit an Integrated Wet Weather Improvement Plan (IWWIP) by March 1st, 2019. This plan must demonstrate evaluation of strategies, alternatives, and ultimately a recommended approach to capture and treat discharges from Lakewood’s combined storm and sanitary water overflows which release untreated waters into our watersheds in certain large rain storms.

As a community, we must prioritize and determine what infrastructure projects make the most sense for Lakewood’s Clean Water Act compliance while also considering affordability. Participants will engage in facilitated roundtable discussions and use an audience electronic voting system to answer various questions. Data collected from this community input will be reflected in the recommendations submitted to the EPA in March 2019.  Your valued participation is needed.