A two-year, $3 million pump station project has begun

by Elie Aoun

After operating for nearly 40 years, Richfield’s main underground wastewater pump station on Brecksville Road is being replaced by a new aboveground facility.

The underground station, officially called Pump Station No. 2, was built in 1988. Wastewater from the station must be forced under considerable pressure to reach the higher elevation of the Brecksville pump station, north of the Ohio Turnpike.

The pumps have been suffering from hammering in their pipes and other age-related issues, Richfield Service Director Scott Waldemarson said. A few times in recent years the station failed, requiring wastewater to be hauled by truck to the Brecksville station.

The Village of Richfield’s 2025 filing with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency described the station as “beyond its useful life to reduce sanitary sewer overflows” and “under capacity to convey current wastewater flows” in its current condition.

Construction of the new station at 4417 Brecksville Rd. began Aug. 1 and is expected to continue through Aug. 30, 2027, Waldemarson said.

The underground station serves approximately 3,719 residents in the Village of Richfield and Richfield Township who are connected to Richfield’s sanitary sewer system. It sends wastewater to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

The new station is being built in a brick and steel building south of the old facility instead of directly above it. Waldemarson described the decision to put the new station above ground as a “maintenance and safety issue,” saying that the building will be “new, modern, easier to work on, safer for everybody.”

When the new station is finished, workers “will physically have to dig down to the main discharge of the existing [station], disconnect from the old pump station and connect into the new pump station for the main inlet and then the main discharge,” he said. “And they’ll have to do that overnight because the flow is usually less in the nighttime hours.” Eventually, the underground station will be demolished.

Kenmore Construction submitted the lowest bid to the village and was awarded the contract to build the new station. The project is being funded by a $3,175,474 loan from the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund, which Richfield will repay at a 3.33% interest rate over 30 years. At that rate, Richfield will save $1,210,000 compared with borrowing the same amount at a market interest rate of 5.13%, according to the Ohio EPA filing.

“Under proposed sewer rates for the project area and based on usage of 4,000 gallons of water per month, the average residential sewer bill will be $90.12 per month, or $1,081 per year, as compared to the state average of $528,” the filing said, noting that the project will not result in a rate increase for residents.

According to the Ohio EPA filing, the new station “[will] have no significant environmental effect, will require no specific impact mitigation and will have no effect on high-value environmental resources.” The filing also states that the new station “will not provide capacity to serve a population substantially greater than the existing population” because little population growth is expected in the coming decades.

Those connected to the old station will not notice any changes in their homes when the new station becomes operational, Waldemarson said. He expects the new station to last at least another 40 years.

Photo caption: Work will be ongoing for two years to move the main sewer pump station on Brecksville Road above ground and into a small building. Photo by S. Serdinak.