What lies behind the dam

I was recently hiking at the Gorge Metro Park in Cuyahoga Falls. I hiked the 1.8 mile Gorge Trail, which passes by the park's dam, Mary Campbell Cave, a small waterfall, and a bunch of other interesting geologic features. I love the Gorge Metro Park, don't get me wrong, but every time I go there I always notice a distinct smell: the smell of rotting sewage. I've always wondered what caused the smell and why no one had done anything about it. The smell was so foul this time it prompted me to Google "toxic sludge Gorge Metro Park Ohio" I discovered that the reason there is that wonderful smell in the park is because there is 10 feet of contaminated sediments behind the park's dam. For the past decade environmentalists have been campaigning to take out the dam to further fix the ecosystem of the Cuyahoga River. It seems that the environmentalists may win too. The EPA recently completed an assessment on the dam and is recommending it be taken down. While I'm really excited for them to further heal the Cuyahoga River, what excites me most about this potential dam removal is what we'll be able to see once everything is said and done.

Jacob Teed

November 27th, 2015

Ohio's forgotten waterfall haven to reemerge?

In 1912 when the Northern Ohio Light company constructed this 57 foot wide, 429 foot long dam, they drowned one of Ohio's most incredible waterfalls: The waterfall that gave Cuyahoga Falls its name. In addition to drowning the main waterfall, the dam drowned dozens of smaller waterfalls that flowed from tributaries as well. Removing this dam will uncover one of the most incredible places in Ohio for the first time in 103 years. Unfortunately, this dam removal is no cheap task: in September of this year they estimated the dam removal would cost 75 million dollars. 12.5 million of the 75 would go towards removing the dam, and the rest would be used to remove all the sediment that has piled up. Even if they approved the dam demolition today, we wouldn't see any legitimate action for almost 4 years. The EPA estimates it would take 40 months of planning before they even touch the dam. No matter how long it takes for them to take out this dam, I know I'm going to be out there the first day the park reopens for exploration.

Natural Ohio Adventures