Project Overview

The Brecksville Canal Diversion Dam and historic Pinery Feeder Dam have been removed, and the Cuyahoga River is now free-flowing in Brecksville for the first time in over 190 years. As a result, the river is open for recreational use.

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Complete

Implementer: Friends of Crooked River [Northeast Ohio Four County Regional Planning & Development Organization] / Ohio EPA

Funding: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative & Ohio EPA

Completion Date: 2023

Project Overview

This project restored and reforested the physical habitat of 5,000 linear feet of the Cuyahoga River. Additionally, it recreated and restored about 200 acres of parkland with 30 acres of wetland. 

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Complete

Implementer: Summit Metroparks, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Commission

Funding: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Clean Ohio, and Other Sources

Completion Date: 2022

Project Overview

The purpose of this project is to restore connectivity to Euclid Creek by providing passage for fish and aquatic organisms upstream, past the existing 185th Street spillway. It is located approximately 1.5 miles upstream from where Euclid Creek enters Lake Erie. 

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations) and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Design

Implementer: Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Anticipated Completion Date: 2026

Project Overview

Two low head dams will be notched to restore fish passage and one prioritized failing dam will be removed from the Little Cuyahoga River.  This project will assist in enhancing the fish habitat, fish passage, general safety and stability, as well as the structure of the stream.

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Design

Implementer: City of Akron

Anticipated Completion Date: 2026

Project Overview

This stretch of the Cuyahoga River is exhibiting issues of accelerated Channel Erosion, unstable planform, and limited stream habitat in low quality. This project aims to lengthen the channel by creating more meanders and features to achieve a more stable equilibrium. 

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Design

Implementer: Cuyahoga Valley National Park / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Anticipated Completion Date: TBD

Project Overview

The Memorial Parkway project will enhance fish habitat and reduce sedimentation in the Little Cuyahoga River. This is expected to improve fish and benthos population within the watershed. 

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Design

Implementer: City of Akron

Anticipated Completion Date: 2026

Project Overview

With the removal of the Canal Diversion Dam, the Dam pool stretching for a couple miles upstream is in need of restoration. This project design will help reestablish the habitat upstream from this effort and will create a higher water quality aligned with the effort.

Status: Proceeding as Design Only MAP

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Design

Funding: Partially Funded

Anticipated Completion Date: 2025

Project Overview

The active part of this project will establish green bulkheads to increase the chances for fish that migrate through the area.  The project will improve riparian habitat and fish refuge areas. The project will design, fabricate, and install hundreds of habitat structures along the hard-walled bulkheads at the most-industrialized southernmost 2 miles of the ship channel.

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations) and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Construction

Implementer: Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority

Funding: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

Anticipated Completion Date: 2026

Project Overview

A 200-acre wetland complex with 1.5 miles of stream, including the mainstem of Brandywine Creek. Restoration will occur that will enhance fish habitat and reconnect the Brandywine Creek with adjacent wetlands. 

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Feasibility

Implementer: West Creek Conservancy / Ohio Lake Erie Commission

Anticipated Completion Date: 2027

Project Overview

The Gorge Dam is the single greatest unresolved water quality problem on the Cuyahoga River. Now, only the dam, a 400-foot wide, 60-feet tall obsolete hunk of concrete, remains. The project will remove the Dam and sediment that has gathered and inhibited the Cuyahoga River for over 100 years. Summit Metro Parks – Free the Falls

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Sediment Removal (Construction) / Dam Removal (Design)

Implementer: USEPA (Sediment Removal) / City of Akron (Dam Removal)

Funding: US EPA GLRI, Local Partners, OLEC, and Ohio EPA

Anticipated Completion Date: 2027 (Sediment Removal) / 2028 (Dam Removal)

Project Overview

A sediment remediation project in the Old River Channel that will prevent contamination from entering the food chain. Contaminants have negative impacts on the health of the ecosystem and contribute to fish consumption advisories on fish caught in the Cuyahoga River and the Great Lakes.

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 4 (Fish Deformities), and BUI 6 (Benthos)

Phase: Design

Implementer: U.S. EPA / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Anticipated Completion Date: TBD

Project Overview

This project in Sowinski Park would retain historic stream walls that can remain with in-stream modifications to improve habitat, replace failing wall segments with natural streambank armoring, and create an oxbow wetland to reduce turbidity and sediment loads.

Status: Complete

Impairments Addressed: BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Complete

Funded by:  319 Program, Local Partners

Anticipated Completion Date: 2023

Project Overview

This six-phase project was designed by EnviroScience, Inc. to reduce erosion and improve stream/floodplain habitat by restoring and stabilizing 4,286 linear feet of the West Branch Euclid Creek and 383 linear feet of tributaries. This will be done through grading, creating a floodplain bench, and restoration of riffle and pool features.

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations), BUI 6 (Benthos), and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Construction

Implementer: Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District

Anticipated Completion Date: TBD

Project Overview

The goal of West Creek Stabilization in Brooklyn Heights project is to restore fish passage, enhance ecologically beneficially habitat, and stabilize the streambank by removing the concrete flume and applying a raised-bed approach along the main stem of West Creek

Status: Active

Impairments Addressed: BUI 3 (Fish Populations) and BUI 14 (Loss of Fish Habitat)

Phase: Construction

Funding: Funded by GLRI/ NEORSD/ ODOT

Anticipated Completion Date: 2025