The Toledo Waterways Initiative (TWI) program encompasses more than 45 separate projects over the course of 18 years, at a total cost of $527 million.

By the year 2020, we will have eliminated an estimated 650 million gallons of untreated flow per year from our waterways.

The TWI has met every Consent Decree Milestone to date, with the following results:

• Since 2006, we have completely eliminated untreated bypasses from the Bay View Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• Since early 2018, we have eliminated all known SSDs.
• The CSO Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) calls for elimination of eight out of 32 permitted combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharge points/overflow locations. Click here to see a map of CSOs. Currently seven have been eliminated:
  • 24-Galena (Ash-Columbus Project) – Maumee River
  • 25-Ash (Ash-Columbus Project) – Maumee River
  • 32-Williams (Williams-Knapp Project) – Maumee River
  • 50-Highland (Highland Project) – Swan Creek
  • 63-DeVilbiss (Lockwood-DeVilbiss Project) – Ottawa River
  • 64-Lockwood (Lockwood-DeVilbiss Project) – Ottawa River
  • 67-Monroe (Ayers-Monroe Project) – Ottawa River
• One additional CSO, 26-Magnolia (Downtown Tunnel System Basin Project) – Maumee River, will be eliminated in 2020.

Toledo is on the cutting edge of wastewater treatment technology.

• The City of Toledo, in partnership with Michigan State University, is currently testing a new cutting-edge technology to treat wastewater, the results of which could aid in the design of future treatment plants around the country. The study to determine the efficiency of this technology, known as the Pathogen Study, just finished its ninth year at the Bay View Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• The new method allows for significantly faster and potentially more efficient treatment of wastewater at the plant through a process called ballasted flocculation. The study is investigating the effectiveness of this high-rate clarification system, as compared with full biological treatment, to remove pathogens and viruses from wastewater flow. This is the only study in the nation to compare actual pathogen removal with these two treatment processes in full-scale operations.
• As a result of the City’s participation in this study, the improvements required at the plant in 2006 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were scaled down, leading to a significant savings to Toledo ratepayers.