Elyria, Ohio, will invest nearly $250 million in capital improvement projects over the next 20 years to eliminate longstanding discharges of untreated sewage into the Black River, 10 miles upstream from Lake Erie. The plan is part of a consent decree negotiated with federal and state regulators following more than 1,000 illegal discharges from the city's sewer system into the river or its tributaries since 2011.
Elyria’s 54,000 residents and surrounding portions of Lorain County are served by a 30-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) wastewater treatment plant that is city owned and operated. Most of its 171-mile sewer collection network consists of separate sanitary and storm sewer lines, but about ten miles of 80- to 100-year-old combined sanitary and storm sewers serve the oldest parts of Elyria’s downtown.