The Baldwin Water Treatment Plant is located in the University Circle/Fairfax neighborhood. Put into service in 1925, the plant operates four additional facilities – the Kirtland Pump Station (1968), the Fairmount Pump Station (1923), the Fairmount Residuals Handling facility (1987), and the Baldwin Filter Plant (1925). The plant has a reservoir with a capacity of 130 million gallons (MGD) and was once considered the largest potable water reservoir in the world. On average, it pumps 71.1 million gallons of water a day to the residents and businesses located in downtown, University Circle, the east side of Cleveland, and the eastern and southeastern suburbs. It is interesting to note that due to the elevation and storage capacity of the Baldwin Reservoir, none of the communities below the elevation of the reservoir lost water supply during the great blackout of 2003.
Baldwin underwent $195.5 million in major renovations as part of the Plant Enhancement Program. Some of the key upgrades included rehabilitating the filter system, building a new chemical system, renovating the residual system and the administration building, rehabilitating the Kirtland raw water pump station, installation of a computer control system that automated the pump stations, the installation of two new Second High Service pumps at Fairmount, the replacement of two 55 MGD pumps at Kirtland with a 10 and 20 MGD pump to allow a wider range of pump flows, and the addition of a de-chlorination system to treat water from the finished water reservoir underdrains.
Baldwin is the only plant, out of all four, that has a visible raw water intake crib on the lake. Normally referred to as the 5-mile crib, this intake is about 3.5 miles from the Cleveland shoreline but 5 miles from the Kirtland Pump Station.
