LIST: We found a can of soup at @neorsd HQ dated 2006. It's older than these 13 things.

Campbell's Chunky firehouse chili, oh how much you've missed.

A colleague found this expired can of soup dated 2006 tucked in the back of our community kitchen at @neorsd headquarters. What has this forgotten spicy beef and bean chili missed in the last 11+ years?

1. Two terms of President Barack Obama
2. Our 25-year Project Clean Lake green light and long-term savings
3. LeBron leaving Cleveland...
4. ...and returning...
5. ...and bringing home an NBA Championship. 
6. The launch of Twitter (2006)
7. The creation, suspension, and relaunch of our Regional Stormwater Management Program
8. The appointment of Ciaccia as our CEO...
9. ...and his retirement...
10. and the confirmation of his successor Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells.  
11. The digging of a 3-mile-long tunnel 200 feet underground
12. A memorable Cleveland Indians World Series run
13. The construction and operation of a LEED-certified Renewable Energy Facility at our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Center

The list could go on. And will go on, as we don't plan to open the can anytime soon.

LIST: 5 ways the end of another Browns season is like treating wastewater

The Cleveland Browns' stadium has 85 restrooms, and we have treated their wastewater every year since their return in 1999. It gives is a unique perspective on the team's foundation, and we found five parallels between the end of another season and the work it takes to clean very dirty water.


The last thing you see is messy.
This season was the fourth straight in which the Cleveland Browns played its final game starting a third-string quarterback. And it ended messy. In water terms, once the water has been used at your homes—for washing, bathing, or flushing—it's dirty, and you want to get rid of it. Flush it, forget it, and move on. You can trust us to take it from there.

Despite the temptation, there are things you shouldn't flush.
The recurring desire to flush your tickets, quarterback jerseys, or dreams for championships may be strong, but don't do it. There are things on our "Do not flush" list for a reason. Stay strong and make the right decisions.

Improvement is a process.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was quick to say after Sunday's game that there would be change, and there is no such thing as a quick fix. Changing sewage into clean water is no quick-fix either. But one good thing about our process is it takes about 24 hours, considerably less than a search for a GM and head coach.

Is your money going down the drain?
Long-time Cleveland sports fans regularly scratch their heads in despair, asking "What are we getting for our investment?" We know customers may ask the same thing when they pay their sewer bills, which is why we offer our social media accounts, annual Open House, Infrastructure Week, and more to help answer those questions. Your sewer bill is money down the drain in a way, but it's an investment in a system that ensures a Great Lake, something you can believe in well beyond football season.

The cycle continues. 
The water cycle, much like the Cleveland coaching cycle, goes on and on and on and on and on. We have faith in a Browns turnaround. If a river can catch fire 13 times and come back from that, maybe "next year" will be here sooner than we think.

Photo by Erik Drost – Creative Commons License

LIST: 9 ways the movie Elf pretty much sums up any water lesson we could ever teach

The life lessons offered in Will Ferrell's Elf are profound and unparalleled. In this holiday season, we invite you to reflect on nine specific clean-water insights only Buddy can convey.
 

A short shower is just as effective as a long one.
 

Everyone needs some alone time. Let your throne be a place of emotional comfort.
 

Singing a song while you're in the shower can help you conserve water by timing your routine. Singing while someone else is in the shower is creepy.

HEALTH: 6 facts about #WorldToiletDay as told through emojis

November 19 is World Toilet Day, drawing attention to the sanitation and clean-water challenges that affect 1 of every 3 people on earth. The statistics bear this out, and the facts are worth talking about.

Here are 6 ways to do so without words.

#h2olloween LIST: 7 comic-book characters' alter egos, and the water careers they could have had

Heroes of comic books and movies make for great costumes for all ages. But are they also indicators of career options?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier filmed in Cleveland in 2013, and before the release, we spent time examining whether famous characters' alter egos' skill sets made them viable candidates for careers in the water industry. Here were a few ideas, and the list is certainly far from all-inclusive.

CAREERS: neorsd.org/careers
COMICS: Information from Masked Heroes

ACTION: Start a movement. Join your voices and #RespectTheFlush

Give your drain the acclaim it deserves.

Every time you flush a toilet, drain your sink, or pass a manhole cover along the curb, amazing unseen things are happening that protect public health and the environment. What can you do to show you #RespectTheFlush?

To raise awareness of the value of our water resources, the Value of Water Coalition imagines a Day Without Water October 6-8 across the country. To complement that, one can not overlook the importance of the gray and green systems in place protecting them.

How do you Respect The Flush? Here are 5 simple ideas.

Tweet #RespectTheFlush

Don't flush wipes.
Disposable wipes are convenient, but they wreak havoc on sewer systems and damage equipment in treatment plants. Throw your baby wipes in the garbage instead of flushing them. And while you're at it, the same goes for the rest of the things on this list.

LIST: 3 things to know about yesterday's #StormwaterProgram ruling

1. First things first, we are reviewing the ruling now. 

Since yesterday's decision, a lot needs to happen before the Regional Stormwater Management Program—suspended since September of 2013—gets back up and running. Our priority now is to review the official decision and determine a plan for reorganizing and re-implementing.

2. No fees will be charged until after an official plan is back in place.

Several media outlets yesterday implied that fees (or incorrectly referred to as taxes) were imminent and customers would see them in the near future. That is not the case.

While we had a fee structure in place in 2013, no official tiers have been established for the relaunch, and so you should not expect to see a stormwater fee on your bill until well after we have set a new implementation schedule. We will keep customers informed through traditional media, social media, bill messages and a mailing to all customers as decisions are made.

When the program was halted, we had collected about $20 million (archived story) worth of the fees between January and September of 2013. An early step, as we told cleveland.com yesterday, will be for us to request that those monies be released from escrow so we can begin putting those dollars to work solving immediate stormwater problems.

3. The problems of 2013 still exist, and the solution is still regional. 

Since the program's suspension in 2013, stormwater projects like stream maintenance to reduce flooding and erosion were put on hold. In some cases, stormwater problems have become worse.

The same logic for a regional program back then remains applicable today. Stream problems that cross community boundaries can not always be addressed within a single municipality's limits, which is why we advocated for—and the Court agreed we have the authority to manage—a regional solution.

As we move forward now with full approval from the Ohio Supreme Court, our mission remains the same: Keep our Great Lake great.

What questions do you have? Post them here, or tweet or message us so we can be sure to add them to a frequently asked questions post in the near future.

LIST: 5 reasons mayflies are nothing like giant mutated man-eating ants

When meteorologist Mark Johnson posted a radar image yesterday of a cloud of mayflies swarming over Lake Erie, it was almost intimidating, like something you'd see in a B-movie trailer foretelling a fight scene between mutated bugs and a clan of outmatched but gutsy Clevelanders.

One move that came to mind is 1977's Empire of the Ants (what do you mean you've never seen it?!) But before you stock up on bunker supplies and take cover, there is really no reason to fear mayflies.

Here are five reasons a swarm of mayflies are so nothing like the ants of 1977 B-movie fame.

LIST: Flush or fiction? 5 of our favorite toilet bowl myths and legends

Handy wipes are flushable: False.

They may say flushable on the package. They are common in bathrooms across the country. But because disposable wipes don't break down in the sewer system like toilet paper does, they can clog a home's plumbing and cause major issues in city treatment systems. Throw wipes in the trash rather than the toilet.

A city sewer system failed when the flow surged beyond capacity during a Super Bowl halftime show: False.

It's a legend that resurfaces every January as teams vie for the big game, but legend is all it is. Green Bay Metro Sewer District said even under the most extreme restroom-rush conditions, the likelihood of a major metropolitan sewer system being unable to handle the flow is slim to none.

Toilet water can splash onto your toothbrush: True.

The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters team proved aerosol droplets released from a flushing toilet can be shown to affect surfaces in restrooms. But the test also showed the reaches to which fecal bacteria can be found all throughout the house, something we're well aware of.

RELATED STORIES

• TECH: How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?
• VIDEO: How does the International Space Station toilet actually work?
• HISTORY: What were bathrooms like in 1776?
• TIPS: 15 things you shouldn't flush (but probably do)

The rotation of the earth changes the direction water flows around a toilet bowl: False.

Does the direction of a toilet bowl's spinning water change depending on the hemisphere you're in? No. The earth's rotation does cause something known as the Coriolis effect, but the force of a flushing drain is, as How Stuff Works explains, "much too great to be influenced by something as miniscule as a single, 360-degree turn over the span of a day."

You should flush old or outdated medications down the toilet rather than just throwing them away: False.

Flushing pharmaceutical products is harmful to our water resources. Wastewater treatment plants are unable to remove these medications from the sewage, which means they end up in our waterways. It's best to drop old and unused medications in safe disposal locations and community collection events so they can be disposed of properly.

LIST: 4 ways Hollywood is like (or not like) what we'll see at our Supreme Court #OHstormwater hearing

Law & Order. The Good Wife. LA Law. Ally McBeal.

How do the popular TV courtroom dramas stand up to an actual Ohio Supreme Court hearing?

We'll find out September 9 when the Sewer District argues its case for a Regional Stormwater Management Program. While it might not make a prime-time lineup, it will be live-streamed, and the hearing is an important one as the decision will have a wide-reaching impact on stormwater management efforts across the state.

Still, before Tuesday, we can make four quick comparisons between Hollywood's courtroom and what we'll actually see in Columbus September 9.

LIST: 7 ways back-to-school jitters are like treating wastewater

Parents, it’s that time of year again. And we can make a few connections between our work and your kids’ first-day jitters that you might not have expected. Class is in session.

1. Sure maybe it stinks, but where would you be without it?

OK, the end of summer may not stink in the literal sense (wastewater work has plenty of unique literal scents of its own). But while you might not be excited about your first day back, you need it. Same thing with wastewater treatment: You wouldn’t last long without it.

2. Your supplies list tends to be pretty pricey.

As parents, students’ supplies lists seem to make our jaws drop. A $198 million sewer tunnel like the Euclid Creek Tunnel, for example, tends to generate the same response, but when it can store 60 million gallons of water to prevent spilling pollution, it helps put things into perspective.

GREEN: St. Patrick's Day and 5 stories of green with Cuyahoga River connections

Our mighty Cuyahoga has never received the full Chicago River green-dye treatment, but it has some green tales to tell.

Here are five interesting stories you may not have heard.

5. The Cuyahoga River was dyed green in 2008. Mysteriously.

In January of that year, the City of Akron discovered a green dye in the Cuyahoga River near their wastewater treatment plant. The plant said they were not responsible for the dye, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency investigated the discovery. No information was available about the official source of the dye.

HEROES: Could these superheroes' alter egos have found better career options?

As Marvel Studios' "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" release date edges closer and closer—an event in which we hold particular interest—we've got superheroes on the brain.

Of course, Captain America's alter ego was Steve Rogers, whose comic book origins state he was a fine arts student and budding illustrator. If he hadn't become Cap, what might his career options have been?

We considered the same question for several other comic book classics, and wondered if they could have found a place in the clean-water industry. Here were a few ideas, and the list is certainly far from all-inclusive.

CAREERS: neorsd.org/careers
COMICS: Information from Masked Heroes

LIST: 8 BuzzFeed quizzes you'll probably never see

I can't believe how these things have taken off. BuzzFeed quizzes.

Which Willy Wonka character are you? Which bagel are you? What should your college major actually be?

BuzzFeed quizzes are all the rage. But while their topics really do run the gamut, we came up with eight you'll probably never see but we'd totally want to.

GREEN: Our Project Clean Lake agreement was groundbreaking, and here are 7 reasons why.

Project Clean Lake was a groundbreaking agreement in 2010 when we signed it, making our 25-year program to reduce pollution in Lake Erie official. A lot has happened in the last four years and our consent decree is still a groundbreaking agreement for the region and clean-water agencies across the country.

Here are seven reasons why.

TIPS: How to build an igloo. Plus 7 other ways to protect home, self during deep freeze

Image credit wikipedia

Social media across Ohio is teeming with all sorts of winter tips, and they're good ones based on the deep freeze hitting us today.

Here are eight more handy winter resources, from plumbing safety to traveling tips, including two that might not have made other local lists.

TIPS: The #12clogs of Christmas [#infographic and video]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but here's a wish list of a different kind.

If you whistle while you work preparing for holiday gatherings, here's a new take on a Christmas tune that will help you (or your guests) remember what not to put down the drain.

LIST: 10 ways to protect your plumbing if you're hosting holiday guests

'Tis the season when your bathrooms could be working overtime. Are they ready for the holidays?

If you're hosting any holiday get-togethers, don't overlook one of the most essential rooms in your home. @ItsThePlumber Tim McKenna posted great tips to check before your guests arrive to ensure your bathroom and kitchen plumbing save you from any unnecessary stress.

What tips would you add to the list? Tweet yours using #h2olidays.

CUTE: 11 of the cutest animals we've seen on the job, prepare to "Awww!"

Whether in the field or on site, our operators, investigators, and security staff have seen all kinds of cute critters. Here are some of the kinds of animals our employees have photographed while on the job.

Alligator: Yes, it's true. We found this guy in Big Creek and rescued him before he froze. Here's the full story.

LIST: 10 ways Buzzfeed lists have inspired us to, well, make more lists

1. Lists give us a reason to post awesome photos.

2. And goofy gifs.