It is also responsible for maintaining the quality of water that is released into public waterways including Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, both from stormwater runoff and sanitary sewage.

In 1972, three years after the Cuyahoga River caught fire and pressures from the EPA, Mayor Ralph Perk formed the NEORSD-or the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

The Attorney General of the United States, John N. Mitchell, gave a Press Conference December 18, 1970 referencing new pollution control litigation, with particular reference to work with the new Environmental Protection Agency, and announcing the filing of a lawsuit that morning against the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation for discharging substantial quantities of cyanide into the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland.

[2] In December 1970 a federal grand jury investigation led by U.S. Attorney Robert Jones, the first grand jury investigation of water pollution in the area, had led to Jones filing multiple lawsuits against the polluters (over a dozen companies in northeastern Ohio).

The program had been on hold since 2013, after the cities of Brecksville, Strongsville, Independence, Lyndhurst and Beachwood filed suit, arguing that the sewer district lacked the authority to impose the fee.