The City of Akron is working to improve its 100 year old sewage system.

Dubbed Akron Waterways Renewed!, the project is federally mandated and aims to eliminate the discharge of sanitary sewage, which contains human excrement, into the Cuyahoga River. 

The problem stems from something known as CSO or Combined Sewer Overflow.   

Currently, water and sewage go into a combined pipe that empties into the Water Reclamation Facility. But when there is a heavy rain, the reclamation facility gets overburdened and the overflow discharges into the Cuyahoga River at 30 different spots.