Cuyahoga River

Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Bi-Annual Symposium Scheduled for October 26

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It’s time again for Cuyahoga River stakeholders, watershed stewards, and anyone else who is interested in the health of the Cuyahoga to get together and learn what’s happening in the Area of Concern (AOC) at the 2018 Cuyahoga River AOC Symposium! The Symposium provides a forum for sharing ideas, reviewing Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) status, showcasing successes and challenges, reviewing recent developments affecting the AOC program and strengthening linkages among state and local AOC participants.

Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC)

Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC)

Not only will we talk about all the progress that has been made in the Cuyahoga River watershed, but we’ll also hear from a panel of experts on new developments and future projects. There is a lot to celebrate this year, especially given that the United States Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the removal of “Degradation of Aesthetics” and “Public Access and Recreation Impairments” from the list of Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) in the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC). This suggests that aesthetics have improved dramatically in the decades since the Cuyahoga was named one of the 27 federally-designated U.S. waterways that have experienced severe environmental degradation. Public access and recreation have been helped by the development of trails, rowing clubs, fishing areas, boating and paddle sport amenities, and dining and entertainment facilities that now line the river banks.

Symposium attendees will have an opportunity to discuss all of the work being done to restore the river, to connect with a wide variety of partners and interested stakeholders, and to contribute to the progress being made. The Symposium will take place on Friday, October 26 from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium. Registration is $35 per person and includes coffee, breakfast snacks and lunch, table talks, panels, and a whole lot of updates on how we’re getting closer every day to delisting the entire Cuyahoga River AOC.

Cuyahoga River AOC Advisory Committee

Cuyahoga River AOC Advisory Committee

For additional information, please visit the website for the AOC’s facilitating organization, Cuyahoga River Restoration and the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee is made up of representatives from Ohio Sea Grant and other organizations including nonprofit community groups, businesses, government agencies, and local residents concerned with the health of the watershed.

Scott Hardy is an Extension Educator for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.

Cuyahoga River Achieves Important Milestone for Improved Aesthetics

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It may be too cold and dreary to be in a boat for most of us just yet. But, we are not all that far away from spring and will soon be making plans to get back on the water!

And for those of us with such thoughts, we have some really good news. The United States Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the removal of “Degradation of Aesthetics” from the list of Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) in the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC). This action acknowledges that aesthetics have improved dramatically in the decades since the Cuyahoga and nearby Lake Erie tributaries were named one of the 27 federally-designated U.S. waterways that have experienced severe environmental degradation. The aesthetics BUI was one of 10 specific problems identified for the Cuyahoga and its watershed in accordance with the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) – a bi-national accord between the United States and Canada focused on cleaning up the most polluted tributaries draining into the Great Lakes.

In a letter to Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Craig Butler, Great Lakes National Program Director Tinka Hyde said, “Removal of this BUI will benefit not only the people who live and work in the Cuyahoga River AOC, but all the residents of Ohio and the Great Lakes basin as well,” and congratulated Ohio EPA staff and “the many federal, state, and local partners who have worked so hard and been instrumental in achieving this important environmental improvement.”

Environmental improvement has been dramatic in the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern.

Surveys and observations over the past few years have shown that persistent “occurrences of sludge, oil, scum or other objectionable materials that produce color, odor or other nuisances,” which are the measure of aesthetic quality set forth in a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) completed for the Cuyahoga, are now either nonexistent in the Area of Concern or are being remediated by long term control plans to reduce combined sewer overflows. Litter and woody debris are not considered persistent impairments in this category.

“This is a significant step forward on the path to delisting the Cuyahoga. It’s great to know that the progress we’re making to restore the AOC can now be recognized. With lasting support from state and federal agencies, and local partners, we can see a future when we reach all our restoration goals,” said Jennifer Grieser, Chair of the Cuyahoga River AOC Advisory Committee.

Restoration along the Cuyahoga River bank.

The next BUI to be delisted – hopefully in the spring of 2018 – is “Public Access and Recreation Impairments,” which has been helped by the development of trails, rowing clubs, fishing areas, boating and paddle sport amenities, residential areas, and dining and entertainment facilities that now allows its removal and signals full recovery. All one needs to do is stroll along the east bank of The Flats in Cleveland, or take a cruise on the Cleveland Metroparks Water Taxi, to see examples of community development on shore and restoration actions along the river’s banks.

If you want to track the progress of the Cuyahoga River as more BUIs are delisted, check out the website for the AOC’s facilitating organization, Cuyahoga River Restoration and the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Advisory Committee. There is also plenty of information on the web page of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as that of Ohio Sea Grant, which is one of the organizations along with nonprofit community groups, businesses, government agencies, and local residents that collaborate to help guide restoration actions throughout the watershed. For more detail on the GLWQA and Cuyahoga AOC, as well as some of the restoration actions taking place, see my CD Blog post from March of 2017 titled: “We all know the Cuyahoga River caught on fire.  What’s being done to clean it up?”

See you on the river!

Scott Hardy is an Extension Educator for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.

Restoring a Burning River – 50 years later

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We all know the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. What’s being done to clean it up?

There’s lots of buzz starting to generate these days around the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, as local residents and water enthusiasts begin gearing up for the 50 year anniversary of the last time the river caught on fire in 1969. Since then, many changes have taken place along the Cuyahoga and much effort has been made to restore the river and its watershed.

Mayor Carl Stokes – 1969 Cuyahoga River News Conference (clevelandhistorical.org)

The infamous 1969 fire was actually the last of a series of occasions in which the river “caught on fire.”  In reality, it wasn’t the river itself that was burning, but the oil, sewage, industrial waste, and flammable debris floating on the water’s surface. In addition to the spectacle of a burning river, all of this contamination heavily degraded water quality, damaged terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitats, and ultimately led to a major loss of biodiversity.

Since 1969 much as been done to clean up the Cuyahoga and other rivers like it. The passage of the Clean Water Act came a few years later in 1972 and sought to make all of America’s rivers ‘fishable and swimmable’ by establishing the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants and by setting quality standards for surface waters. Fifteen years later in 1987 a binational agreement between the United States and Canada called the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) sought to bring more attention to the most polluted waters specifically in the Great Lakes. According to the GLWQA, each of the polluted rivers, called Areas of Concern (AOC), were required to develop Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) that identify all of the environmental problems (called Beneficial Use Impairments, or BUIs) in the area and enlist local advisory committees and environmental protection agencies to restore them.

For the Cuyahoga River, only the lower 46.5 miles are included in the Area of Concern. So are all of the tributaries that drain into that section of the river and the shoreline adjacent to the river’s mouth, including tributaries that flow directly into Lake Erie. The entire AOC covers an area that stretches from Big Creek on the western edge of Cuyahoga County to Euclid Creek in the east, and from the shore of Lake Erie south all the way to the City of Akron. In total, the area spans parts of Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Summit, and Medina counties, and includes 10 BUIs that the RAP has targeted for restoration:

  • Restrictions on Fish Consumption
  • Degradation of Fish Populations
  • Fish Tumors or Other Deformities
  • Degradation of Benthos
  • Restrictions on Navigational Dredging
  • Eutrophication or Undesirable Algae
  • Beach Closings (Recreational Contact)
  • Public Access and Recreation Impairments
  • Degradation of Aesthetics
  • Loss of Fish Habitat

In short, lots of people are working to clean the river up and delist the BUIs. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is collaborating with the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Advisory Committee to lead restoration actions. The Advisory Committee is facilitated by the nonprofit Cuyahoga River Restoration, and is made up of representatives from Ohio Sea Grant and other organizations including nonprofit community groups, businesses, government agencies, and local residents concerned with the health of the watershed.

Some of the restoration activities that have taken place are complex and expensive undertakings, such as removing dams or installing green stormwater infrastructure to reduce combined sewer overflows (during heavy rains untreated stormwater and wastewater combine and discharge directly into the river). Other activities are much smaller in scale, like restoring riverbank vegetation, working with landowners to plant riparian buffers, and developing fish habitat along barren stretches of the shipping channel close to the river’s mouth. Ultimately, much of the progress to delist BUIs will be dependent on education and outreach that informs the public about the problems facing the Cuyahoga River and encourages local residents to contribute to potential solutions.

If you are interested in learning more about the Cuyahoga River, or would like to contribute to restoration efforts, there are plenty of opportunities. To get started, check out the website for the AOC’s facilitating organization, Cuyahoga River Restoration, or the Cuyahoga Valley National Park located in the river’s headwaters. You will be able to read about all of the great things happening to keep the Cuyahoga fishable and swimmable and see how you can personally make a difference. We have come a long way over the past several decades!

See you on the river!

Scott Hardy is an Extension Educator with the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.