© 2025 WOSU Public Media
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Akron Celebrates Wastewater Upgrades Completed Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget

Akron's sewer project recently saw success in the upgrade of its wastewater treatment facility.
KABIR BHATIA
/
WKSU
Akron's sewer project recently saw success in the upgrade of its wastewater treatment facility.

Akron officials say the project to upgrade the city’s sewer system has surpassed one of its goals.

Repairs to the city’s wastewater treatment plant were completed two months ahead of schedule and cost 11 million dollars less than expected. Some of the upgrades include refurbished tanks and new pipes.

The program manager of the Akron Waterways Renewed! project Patrick Gsellman said the improvements at the wastewater plant help the entire water and sewer system function more effectively.

“One of our plant managers has coined the phrase that we “hot-rodded” our existing system," he said. "We really did just upgrade the existing system to the point that we could really maximize the amount of flow that we can send through and maximize the amount of treatment we can get out of it.”

Gsellman said the full sewer and water project is almost finished, as 90 percent of the planned upgrades are either completed or under construction.

Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit WKSU.

Anna joined ideastream in 2019, where she reports on health news for WCPN and WVIZ in Cleveland. She has also served as an associate producer for NewsDepth. Before that, Anna was a 2019 Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.