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Wastewater superintendent: city installed 16 meters and five rain gauges to trace stormwater entering sewers
Summary
North Royalton began a second wave of flow monitoring with 16 meters and five rain gauges to pinpoint sources of stormwater inflow to the sanitary system; city expects data and an AECOM/GPD briefing by autumn to inform 2027 budget planning.
Wastewater Superintendent Ed Haller told the North Royalton Utilities Committee on May 6 that the city has installed 16 flow meters and five rain gauges across the sewer system to measure how wet-weather events change flows.
"The goal is to catch how the flows change as rain arrives," Haller said, explaining that the equipment will remain in the system for at least two months and possibly longer so the team can sample several rain events.
The monitoring is the second wave of testing, Haller said. Crews are beginning at high-flow "legs" near the treatment plants and will move outward into sub-legs where data show larger inflows. AECOM is performing the flow metering as a subcontractor to GPD; the subcontractor crews check instruments weekly, change batteries and inspect anomalous readings in the field.
Councilmember Sarah Wojslaw asked whether the testing will continue into next year. Haller said tracing inflow and infiltration is "almost an ongoing never-ending process," and that while the city will prioritize lower-cost fixes, each potential remedy carries a price.
Haller said the city's first focus has been residential sources and that the team has not yet systematically examined commercial connections or cross-connections. He said the meters and gauges provide the data necessary to target higher-volume sources for future repairs.
Haller estimated that data collection will take two to three months, followed by another month or two of analysis. "I anticipate that to be in the next five months or so," he said, a timeline Mayor Paul Marnecheck said would align findings with the 2027 budget process. The mayor and Haller said AECOM or GPD could present the analysis to the committee when available.
Next steps: continue monitoring through summer rainfall events, analyze the dataset this fall, and present findings to council to inform budget and remediation priorities.
