Cleveland Water will be watching returns come in tonight. Returns from our monitoring buoys that is.

September 18 is World Water Monitoring Day, an initiative designed to inspire people around the world to educate themselves about their local water quality and encourage action to protect water sources. Over the last few months, we’ve featured how Cleveland Water’s monitoring buoys in Lake Erie and sondes in our water intakes continuously monitor source water conditions.

Over the last 24 hours, strong winds blowing from the northwest to the southeast over the Great Lakes has caused massive downwelling events and temperature swings.

Protecting our shared natural resources that we all need to live – clean air, clean water, and healthy native habitats on land – is critical to creating and maintaining a robust economy and a good quality of life.

Each summer, pockets of water with low levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) develop in areas of Lake Erie’s Central Basin, which stretches from Sandusky to Erie, PA.

Have you ever set a glass of water on your bedside table only to take a drink out of it a few days later and think the water tastes “flat” or different? Chances are the water is missing dissolved oxygen. Dissolved oxygen (also called DO) is gaseous oxygen dissolved in water that you can’t see. Generally speaking, the more dissolved oxygen in the water the better it tastes.

The Cleveland Water system is designed with numerous layers of protection to help ensure only clean, safe drinking water reaches your tap. These advantages start with the location of where we draw water in from Lake Erie, extend to our four treatment plants, and continue throughout our delivery system.

Last week while monitoring sensors on Cleveland Water’s two buoys in Lake Erie, our staff noticed a downwelling event. Water temperature shifts like this can result in adjustments to the treatment process at our plants in order to maintain the quality and consistency of the water coming from your tap.

Hot summer days call for outdoor hoses, sprinklers, and water balloons battles.

Cleveland Water would like to remind customers that commonly used outdoor faucets and garden hoses, especially those that pre-date 2014, are not meant to be used for drinking water. They may contain lead and/or be made from materials that easily leach chemicals into the water, especially when heated by the sun. In addition, garden hoses are usually left outside in unsanitary conditions, making them susceptible to bacteria growth.