by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Peninsula -- Flooding concerns are not new in the area, but now local communities have a new weapon in the battle: Cooperation.
Community officials and the public interested in flooding within the Brandywine Creek Watershed are invited to an educational workshop, "Building a Better Watershed," at the Happy Days Visitor Center in Peninsula Jan. 19.
Jane Goodman, outreach and communications director for the Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization, which is coordinating the workshops, said they will be an opportunity for public officials and residents to learn about how watersheds work in general and about how their particular watershed works.
Goodman said the educational effort, which includes similar efforts in the Mud Brook and Furnace Run watersheds, is being funded with $49,000 in grants from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Education and the Gund Foundation. The money covers the cost of the workshops planned for each watershed and to produce materials, including brochures and a book about watersheds that is expected to be published in July.
Goodman estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 copies will be published and made available to public officials, area libraries and schools and possibly will be sold in bookstores.
The Jan. 19 workshop is meant to facilitate communication between communities who recently agreed to join forces to better manage drainage issues in the Brandywine Creek watershed.
Last year, Macedonia, Northfield Center, Hudson and Boston Heights agreed to form the Brandywine Creek Watershed Planning Partnership in an effort to deal with flooding in the portions of those communities within the watershed, as well as downstream in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Similar groups have also been formed within the Mud Brook Watershed south of Brandywine and including parts of Hudson, Stow, Cuyahoga Falls, Boston Heights, Silver Lake and Akron, and the Furnace Run Watershed, which includes portions of Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Richfield, Bath and Boston Township.
The partnerships are being formed with the cooperation of the Cleveland-based CRCPO, a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to coordinate the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Cuyahoga River Remedial Action Plan.
Other watersheds with community partnerships already well established include the Tinkers, Yellow, and Chippewa creeks.
Goodman said the effort to form the partnerships is all a part of the organizations role.
"It's our job to clean up the Cuyahoga River and the only way to do that is to get the tributaries working right again," said Goodman. "We know the only way to do this is to get the communities working together because flooding doesn't respect political boundaries." Goodman said the watershed partnerships are also supported by the national park, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association and the Cuyahoga Valley Regional Council of Governments.
"We're extremely pleased with this," said John Debo, superintendent of the national park. "This is a critical issue for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We've suffered $6 million in flood damage over the last four years."
Goodman said that to control flooding, communities must work together.
"This is to work towards a plan that all can agree on to control the water," she said.
She said this includes developing land use plans and zoning and building codes together. Goodman said individuals can also help with such simple actions as not mowing grass along creeks, since grass also absorbs water and stabilizes soil.
Goodman said that the effort to control flooding is not anti-development, but wise development.
"We follow a balanced growth process, meaning you can build condos and houses and stores and protect the watershed, but you have to decide on your priorities," she said.
National park ecologist Kevin Skeryl, who serves on an advisory committee for the watershed partnerships, along with representatives from the Summit County Soil and Water Conservation Department, the OEPA and the remedial action plan, agreed with this.
"The Northeast Ohio region has experienced the impacts of flooding in the last five to seven years. Older developments don't have adequate stormwater controls," said Skeryl. "These workshops will help these communities to address their economic growth concerns while being environmentally responsible.
My role and the park's role is to support the educational efforts of
any groups that are out there."
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169