Expect more stories like the incredible sink hole that swallowed my backyard. [1]The infrastructure of Cleveland and the inner ring suburbs is crumbling. Instead of repeating the same mistakes, Cuyahoga County needs to find a way to reimburse these homeowners and collectively allow these stream corridors to revert to their natural function. It is certainly the most cost effective way of fixing this problem and it will serve the dual purpose of cleaning our waters and regreening our community.
Communities across Ohio are required to complete a storm water management plan. This should include buying back some of these threatened downstream properties and critical upstream headwater properties. When Mr. Roscoe's house was built, Cleveland Heights was a bucolic refuge from the city. In some ways, East Cleveland should be pointing the finger at Cleveland Heights. Is it a good upstream neighbor??
Read Michael Gill's article in the Free Times. He talks about CSOs--combined sewer outfalls. These don't fail as he describes--they were designed to permit the mixing of sanitary and storm water during heavy rains (dilution is the solution was a 70s mantra), when the sewer district can not accept all the water going to the wastewater treatment plants. Recently, the City of Euclid emptied their swimming pools to the storm sewers (they should have discharged to the sanitary sewer lines) and the chlorinated water caused a fish kill in Euclid Creek. Connect the dots. Read the landscape and respect it.
Links:
[1] http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/20/hole