Flooding in Avon Lake

I understand that there is a great deal of basement flooding in Avon Lake and surrounding areas because of a recent storm. I am sorry to learn of the news from my friends.

This should be no surprise. The planning and engineering for much of the building boom in the area was rushed and poorly done. The water table is very high and retention ponds do not completely solve the problem. I raised this issue to the Avon Lake planning commission and city council in 2002!

The city engineer told me that Jones & Henry did much of the review of the water drainage plans for the area. Acting as a consulting engineer, they determined that the proposed drainage system for the city was adequate to prevent all types of flooding.

I have heard from some people that even under normal conditions their home sump pumps are operating continuously in an attempt to stop water from flowing into the basement. The homes were built during the boom.

In some cases, the natural water table is only inches from the surface! It is hard to justify building homes on this type of land.

Basement flooding weakens foundations and walls. I know of at least one person who had basement walls replaced because of reoccurring flooding.

In my own experience, I had extreme surface flooding because of nearby development. It is hard to deal with this type of situation and the builder was uncooperative. The city could have done more. The view was that a builder could do essentially whatever they wanted as the boom was creating jobs after the 2001 recession. At the time, Ohio's manufacturing economy had contracted perhaps 10% annually for three consecutive years.

It is possible that the flooding problems in Avon Lake will continue for many years into the future. I am not sure there is an easy or cheap answer to address the problem.

A long time ago, while in graduate school, I leaned about the tremendous responsibility that city planners assume when doing designs. The decisions of planners influence generations of people. I think Avon Lake is a good case study, for better or worse.