Lamont "Bud" Curtis was the project manager for Havens and Emerson which provided the “Master Plan for Pollution Abatement”, the “Cuyahoga River Water Quality Study”, the “Central Cuyahoga Basin Watershed Study”, and the “Chagrin and Rocky River Water Quality Study”. He was the project manager on the Corps of Engineers “Wastewater Management Alternatives Study” and worked on the Northeast Ohio Water Development Plan.

The following are some of Mr. Curtis’s recollections after the Cuyahoga River fire of 1969.

On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire. It was not a big fire—it only took a half hour to put out—but it was big politically. Certainly the fire along with many newspaper articles about the death of Lake Erie brought attention to the water quality and pollution issues of the nation’s rivers and lakes.

Prior to this the public focus, as well as the political focus (on water), was not as predominant. Still, The Congress had passed water quality legislation long before and the Water Restoration Act of 1966 imposed fines on polluters. The Water Quality Act of 1970 established procedures for the states to enforce water quality standards. In Ohio, the Department of Health was promulgating water quality standards. Men like J. Earl Richards and George B. Garrett of the Ohio Department of Health conducted public hearings around the state attempting to build support. Municipal governments who owned, operated, and maintained the wastewater plants and industry were concerned with the ramifications.

Municipal governments who, for the most part, owned only primary treatment works were concerned with the revenue requirements to support construction and operation of more sophisticated secondary treatment plants. Industry which had only basic treatment or in some cases discharged directly to the rivers professed the additional costs would make them uncompetitive.

Citizens groups such as the League of Women Voters (LWV) formed committees and spoke enthusiastically in support of the water quality standards. For the Cleveland area, one of the leading voices of the LWV was Mrs. Dorothy Angel who was always present at the hearings. Other groups were formed, such as the Three Rivers Watershed District, lead by Executive Director George Watkins, which took a more moderate stand and promoted long-term watershed planning (and later supported the formation of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District).

Around this time, The State of Ohio embarked on a series of geographically based water development plans. The Northeast Ohio Water Plan was launched in the late 1960s. In 1966, the City of Cleveland, under the leadership of Mr. Walter Gerdel, then the Commissioner of Water Pollution Control for the City, made the decision to identify the problems of pollution in the Cleveland area and to develop a phased program of improvements. The Consulting Engineering firm of Havens and Emerson was retained to develop the “Cleveland Master Plan for Pollution Abatement.”

The City owned three wastewater treatment plants that provided treatment for Cleveland and several suburbs, Euclid, Lakewood, Bedford, and Bedford Heights were among the contiguous suburbs that owned their own plants. The sewer system in Cleveland was a combined sewer system. The stormwater and sanitary sewage were transported in the same pipe and co-mingled when rainfall was sufficient to produce runoff. To relieve the combined sewers, large overflows were constructed that discharged the excess flow (above the hydraulic capacity of the pipe) directly into Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga River and many other streams in the urban area.

For the most part, the suburbs had what was called separate storm and sanitary sewers. Many of the sanitary sewers were in such poor condition that ground water would infiltrate and stormwater would reach these “separated” sewer systems through yard drains, roof downspout connections and other illicit connections. At the time, the severity of the infiltration and inflow problem was not well known. Similarly, the amount of pollution caused by stormwater from the surface area of streets and urban areas was essentially discounted as not being significant, at least among many involved in municipal government and politics.

Here's how the scene appeared at the time: The Cuyahoga River and urban streams such as Big Creek, Doan Brook, Euclid Creek, Dugway Brook and other smaller streams were polluted to the point of having no beneficial public use. They had little biological life and rarely, if ever, fish. Human contact had to be avoided because of bacteria levels. If you fell in the Cuyahoga River in the dredged channel, you would emerge covered with oil. Lake Erie was unswimmable much of the time along the Cleveland Lake Shore. The beaches—Edgewater, White City Beach, and other suburban beaches to the west, such as Huntington Beach to the west and Euclid Beach to the east—had frequent closures due to bacteria levels being higher than the Health Department's limit for body contact recreation. Masses of blue-green algae floated in Lake Erie clogging outboard motors, depleting the oxygen, and contributing to fish kills.

Water pollution control efforts begin

The problems of Water Pollution Control had been recognized, and work was ongoing, but the political will resulting in part from the lack of a public demand, plus state and federal legislation that was not as accountable as future legislation would be, led to an apathetic attitude. The costs required to provide solutions concerned the municipal officials. Then, “The Fire” occurred. Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River became the butt of many jokes. Television entertainers had a field day. People were becoming concerned with stories of fish kills, Lake Erie dying, the burning river, the visual appearance of the waterways, and the dire conditions of the quality of life if something was not done. A well-meaning person spray painted on a Lake Erie retaining wall a thought that summed up the situation and which would spur environmental efforts. It read, “Help me I’m Dying, Lake Erie”

The Master Plan for Pollution Abatement was in its final stages of completion. It identified many immediate solutions to prevent combined sewer overflows that would allow an increase in the use of beaches in Cleveland and many long term solutions to improve the water quality in the Cleveland area. Work got started early. The City formed an Industrial Waste Bureau headed by Ray Roth to enforce regulation to reduce the industrial waste being discharged. Many of the combined sewers were modified to decrease the number of overflows of sewage per year. Many broken pipes were repaired including one at Big Creek that was discharging several million gallons per day of raw sewage in the creek. This was the low hanging fruit so to speak, and it did produce results.

In 1969, Carl Stokes became the Mayor of the City of Cleveland. One of his first directives was to make Edgewater and Whites beaches swimmable. In an effort to provide safe swimming at these two beaches, a plastic curtain was suspended off-shore and the area behind the curtain was chlorinated to reduce bacterial levels to appropriate levels for body contact recreation. These were considered “swimming pools in the Lake”. Mayor Stokes embraced the long term solution of the Master Plan and promoted a $100 million dollar bond dedicated to the cause. He created the “Clean Water Task Force” and hired Edward Martin, Ph.D. to be its first Director.

The Task Force commenced the long-term recommendations which included upgrading the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant that discharged to Lake Erie and the Southerly Wastewater Treatment that discharged to the Cuyahoga River. They promoted the construction of a new secondary plant to replace the aging Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant which discharged to Lake Erie. Design and construction of several interceptors to reduce combined sewer overflows or to collect sanitary sewage from the suburbs and deliver it directly to the wastewater plant were also instituted.

Curtis, P.E., DEE is presently a Senior Engineering Manager at Parsons Brinkerhoff