Cleveland water celebrates 150 years!

Submitted by Phillip Williams on Fri, 06/23/2006 - 11:15.

Cleveland Division of Water

The City of Cleveland Division of Water celebrates 150 years of service (1856 – 2006). This is an outstanding organization that servers water the greater Cleveland. There are some amazing facts that we should all be aware of.

  • Cleveland's water division is the nations 10th largest delivery system.
  • The produce about 230 million gallons per day!
  • They server about 1.5 million customers.
  • The server over 70 communities with water.
  • The operate about 5,000 miles of water mains!

Here are some interesting facts:

  • The human body is 67% water
  • The average US home consumes 100,000 gallons of water annually
  • Cleveland's water distribution system is one of the oldest and largest in the country
  • One gallon of water weighs 8.5 pounds

While all of this information (taken from a recent flier I received via the US postal service) is sounding pretty good. The following piece of information that nearly knocked me off my feet was this:

As of 2003 the water division found that the average level of LEAD found in the DRINKING water was 6.4µg/L! The level of lead in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health is 0µg/L! Somehow somebody out there think that it is safe for there to be up to 15µg/L of lead in drinking water! Now comes the REALLY scary part! 2 of 72 sites confirmed lead levels ABOVE 15µg/L!

Available at http://www.clevelandwater.com/water_quality/2004/contents.html

If you want to protect your family start drinking bottled water from a good company. Make sure to ask for copies of the state mandated test results before committing to a contract for home or office delivery.

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The problem with water is sprawl

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 06/24/2006 - 01:05.

I agree with your assessment of the Water Department providing a generally high quality product, and that it is still not safe to drink the water. We've been using a Brita Filter, which is "certified" to remove 98% of lead, along with benzene, mercury, and lots other nasty stuff, and is cost effective, but I wonder is that enough or do we need bottled? I also wonder about well water. I know that since it doesn't have flouride so dentists advise to add flouride to a well water lifestyle, and wells can be contaminated in many ways. All the drinking water issues are important, but I see the big water system issue being about overflow of the system caused by sprawl. Sprawl has destroyed our ecology and that is now reflected not just in crap literally running into Lake Erie but in all the other toxins of the world overflowing the system, and in many cases bypassing it altogether, and consolidating in our lakes and rivers. That will never leave, so Lake Erie for example is ruined and getting worse. Now Cleveland wants to expand the water system to try and accommodate the perverse outcomes of sprawl, which is reflected most impactfully in the flooding all over NEO seen in the papers, news and drownings these days - from the new 'burbs where homeowners deserve whatever problems they have forever, to Lakewood where old neighborhoods never before flooded are now victims of the 'burbillies stupidity and greed. I do not think those flooded due to sprawl deserve any sympathy or government assistance, and they should be denied flood insurance, just as with areas of Louisiana that never should have been developed and are now gone - this is all completely avoidable, but much "development" must be undeveloped and the fools who bought the farmland from the con-men who paved their farms must now suffer. Now that NEO is plagued by sewage problems, it is time for Lakewood residents to sue those who caused the problems, including the developers who built all the sprawl developments and their residents, and the planners and mayors who have let it happen - sue Wolstein, Carney, ODOT, Beechwood, Westlake, Strongsville etc., etc., for poor stewardship of the environemnt and corruption, evil, greed and stupidity. Perhaps we are too stupid to care for our regional environment, but mother nature knows best.