MEDINA COUNTY SANITARY ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

The Board of County Commissioners have established the Medina County Sanitary Engineering Department which is responsible for the operation of all sewerage facilities, water distribution facilities, and solid waste management provided by Medina County. This department employs approximately 139 people and all expenses of the operations and debt are funded through various user charges collected from those who utilize the services. General Fund money is not being expended for any of these services. A description of each division is as follows:

SEWERAGE

This Division maintains approximately 487 miles of sanitary sewers throughout the County which includes the City of Medina, the City of Brunswick and several townships. There are three (3) Waste Water Treatment Plants which have a total average rated daily capacity of 19.5 million gallon per day while they are presently treating approximately 10.0 million gallon per day and serving approximately 34,400 residents and businesses. Since these treatment plants are located within the Lake Erie Drainage Basin, extremely stringent discharge parameters are required by the Ohio EPA and are consistently met by these facilities. The Liverpool Waste Water Treatment Plant now accepts septage from septic tank haulers located within the County.

WATER DISTRUBUTION DIVISION

This Division has approximately 327 miles of water lines, 13 water storage tanks, 8 water pumping stations, and 3 water treatment plants that currently service 13,900 customers. The majority of the water supplied by the County is obtained from the Avon Lake Water Treatment Plant via Rural Lorain County Water Authority. Water is delivered at three (3) separate locations which can deliver 14 million gallons per day, while the present average daily consumption is approximately 3 million gallons per day.

SOLID WASTE DIVISION

In order to be in compliance with the Solid Waste Act of Ohio(HB-592), the County constructed a Central Processing Facility in 1993, in order to recover recyclable materials from the solid waste stream. All solid waste generated and collected within Medina County is delivered to this facility. The mixed municipal solid waste, which now totals approximately 146,500 tons per year, is then sorted in order to remove recyclable material and produce organic compost. In addition, yard waste is brought into the facility separately and is produced into compost material which is made available to the public. This facility is currently recovering approximately 30% of the material from solid waste collected thus diverting it from valuable landfill space. This Division has recently constructed an expansion to the facility which will allow refuse derived fuel pellets (RDF) to be made from shredded paper and film plastic which can then be burned with a mixture of coal in electric producing plants thus further reducing reliance on landfill space by approximately another 30%. This facility received a silver award in a competion of other similar facilities located in North America. Solid Waste Division Web Site.