Cleveland Water Quality: Yesterday
In 1796, Cleveland was established at the midpoint of the shore of Lake Erie on the banks of the Cayahoga River. Early settlers used unfiltered water from local spring wells, causing many residents to get sick from water-borne diseases like cholera and dysentery. When the wells were dry, resident Benhu Johnson would deliver lake water for 25 cents for two barrels. By 1853, the growing city needed a reliable water supply and began to pump water from Lake Erie.
As the city grew and the demand for water increased, the water at the intake crib – a structure that surrounds and protects the intake shaft from possible pollutants – on Lake Erie became increasingly lower in quality as the intake crib began to pump sediment as well as water. City engineers built a new crib tunnel 6,000 feet offshore in Lake Erie. As the population grew, the city built the water intake cribs further out into Lake Erie, ultimately extending the intake cribs 5 miles from the shore. In 1911, Cleveland began to add chlorine to the distribution system, but many residents found the water to be unpalatable as the water was not filtered before distribution. City planners built Cleveland’s first filtration plant, Baldwin Filtration Plant and Reservoir, to serve filtered and chlorinated water to the system.