The completion last fall of Akron’s huge wastewater storage basin - which a local news reporter suggested "looks like a Bunyanesque swimming pool" - is already having a significant impact on water quality in local rivers, according to local officials and environmental advocates.

As big as a football field and 30 feet deep, the basin has a capacity of 9.5 million gallons. It represents a major first step by the city toward reducing the amount of untreated wastewater that spills into the Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers when the city’s sewer system or treatment plan is overloaded by a heavy rain or snow melt.

Construction of the basin required 15,000 cubic yards of concrete - or 30,000 tons - plus 1,400 tons of reinforcing steel. The floor of the basin is 43 inches thick and the walls are 6 feet thick at the bottom and 18 inches thick at the top. To prevent groundwater pressure from floating the basin, 1,035 anchors extend through the floor into the ground at depths ranging from 80 to 110 feet.

The basin incorporates Racks 40, 31 and 30, old combined sewer overflows that were the city‘s most serious pollution problems. When a major storm occurs, wastewater that would have spilled out of the overflows and into the Little Cuyahoga River is routed into the basin via a new 12-foot diameter, 700-foot-long pipeline, where it is stored until it can be pumped back to the plant for treatment. An automated flushing system cleans the basin after it has been drained and a sophisticated communications system including flow sensors and security cameras allows city employees to operate the basin remotely from the treatment plant.

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