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Water bill woes part 2: What can Philadelphia learn from Cleveland’s water department?
Exploring what can be done to help cities’ poorest residents who struggle with water debt This is part two of a three-part series looking at the state of water affordability in Cleveland, Philadelphia and beyond, authored by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative in partnership with Resolve Philly in Philadelphia. You can find Part 1…
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Sidebar: Why compare Cleveland and Philadelphia, and why does this matter?
By Conor Morris Across the U.S., the cost of water and sewer has only gotten more expensive over the last several decades, with the average water bill increasing by 30% between 2012 and 2019, according to a utility bill index conducted by Bluefield Research. As of 2019, low-income households spent an average of almost 10%…
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‘Unbuilding’: What might happen if dams are removed in the Ohio River watershed
By Julie Grant The Ohio River watershed is dotted with thousands of small dams. Many are remnants of bygone days of grain mills and the steel industry, which used dams to pool water needed during production. The dams are no longer needed. And, because they can be a safety hazard to boats and a barrier…
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Toxic Discharge Data Shows Where Pollutants Leach into the Ohio River, but Enforcement Remains an Issue (With Interactive Map)
By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp All Tim Guilfoile wants to do is fish. Before his retirement, he had two careers: one in business and one in water quality activism. Now, he serves as the director of marketing and communications for Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers. “We fly fish for bass, blue gill, striped bass and others. Not…
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360-degree video interactive: A journey to revitalization on an Ohio River tributary
By Jeffrey Boggess, Ariel Cifala, Bijan Fandey, Shae McClain and Mark Schoenster The Cheat River courses through one of the largest undammed watersheds in the eastern United States. The river forms from tributaries high in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and flows northward to meet with the Monongahela River just before crossing into…
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‘That’s vinegar’: The Ohio River’s history of contamination and progress made
By April Johnston In 1958, researchers from the University of Louisville and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission gathered at a lock on the Monongahela River for routine collecting, counting and comparing of fish species. At the time, the best way to accomplish this was what’s called lock chamber sampling, or filling a 350-by-56-foot…
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