Cuyahoga quietly changing its course - Meandering ways part of its nature
Monday, November 06, 2006
John C. Kuehner, Plain Dealer Reporter

It's called the Crooked River.

But the Cuyahoga has lost a few curves. And added a few new ones, too.

Big rain storms three of the last four years have changed the winding course of the Cuyahoga between Akron and Rockside Road in Independence.

"That's what rivers do," said Steve Tuckerman, an environmental scientist and a Cuyahoga River specialist with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. "The river changes all along. You just don't notice it because it does not change quickly."

The river meanders widely through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park where it has space to move and construction does not keep it in place.

"I think what we've noticed with this river is there is always a little change going on continuously," park engineer Robert Bobel said.

Floods from heavy rains in 2003, last year and this summer caused some of the fast changes. Side creeks that empty into the Cuyahoga, such as Mud Brook, which drains Hudson, Stow and Cuyahoga Falls, and Yellow Creek, which primarily drains Bath Township, brought cascading flood waters.

Development sends more storm water into creeks and the Cuyahoga. Storm water flows off rooftops, streets and parking lots and into a storm drain and dumps into a creek.

The smooth, flat surfaces accelerate water speed, which causes additional erosion above and beyond what normally would occur.

"It's these storm events that cause larger changes in the river, and the last three years we've seen more of these," Bobel said. "We're downstream from everybody and we're seeing the impacts of development on the rims of the park."

The normal course for the river as it reaches its mouth, in this case Lake Erie, is to wind back and forth.

Outside the park boundary, the Cuyahoga does not have the normal characteristics of a wild river with flood plains and wetlands that dissipate the water's energy and allow it to rise and drop slowly.

Starting at Rockside Road and moving north, development on the flood plain on both sides of the river has held the Cuyahoga in place. The confinement is even more prominent starting at Harvard Road up to Lake Erie.

Both sides of the river's banks are hardened by steel and wood bulkheads.The Cuyahoga's pattern through downtown Cleveland is frozen in time and confined to its present pattern. It's not changing.

River experts say the best way to see a river change course is to look at aerial photographs.

Jim White, who heads the group cleaning up the Cuyahoga River, has witnessed the changes from the Goodyear blimp. He flew over the river valley four years ago, before the first major storm, and again last month.

He said he observed enormous changes in the shape and structure of oxbows, which are U-shaped bends in the river that look like the yoke that holds the neck of an ox. He also saw a great amount of bank erosion and new deposits of soil in the river.

"It's a clear indication that rivers and streams need their elbow room," he said. "A little healthy respect for nature's power will go a long way in community planning."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jkuehner@plaind.com, 216-999-5325