Regional sewer district briefs Parma council on new basins, restoration pause for antiquated gas well

Nicole, a representative of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, told Parma City Council that the district completed three regional stormwater basins this year and is progressing on two additional projects designed to reduce flooding in Parma and neighboring jurisdictions.

The presentation, given during the council’s public service committee, named the Baldwin Creek (Bonnie Banks) regional stormwater basin and the Del Haven basin among the completed projects. "This basin will hold 20,000,000 gallons of stormwater," Nicole said of the larger Baldwin/Bonnie basin; she added that Del Haven "is going to hold 6 and a half million gallons." She emphasized that Del Haven is fenced and "is not a park — it is solely...to retain and detain stormwater from flooding the downstream West Pleasant Valley area." The district has also completed the West Creek Veterans Regional Stormwater Basin, which staff said is designed to reduce basement backups and to mitigate the 100-year storm event.

Nicole described additional work outside Parma’s boundaries — including a Maplewood basin in Parma Heights and an ODOT I-480 basin — and explained how upstream basins relieve downstream flooding at trouble spots such as the Brookpark/Tiedemann intersection near large retail sites. She said the district is designing a relief sewer at that intersection to pull stormwater off the local system and route it to storage basins.

The district reported nearly $32.5 million invested to date in Parma property acquisitions and stormwater projects (the figure was presented as preliminary). On the Big Creek restoration project, Nicole said a roughly 1.5-mile stream-restoration effort — including streambank stabilization and utility protection — is on hold where an "antiquated gas well" intersects the planned work. "We were able to work with the city's engineering and law departments to apply for the ODNR orphan gas well program," she said, and staff reported that ODNR has agreed to move the removal work up to its 2026 schedule (previously not expected until 2027).

Council members praised the district’s responsiveness and noted fewer resident calls about basement flooding near newly completed basins. A resident later asked the service director whether the city had adequate road salt for winter operations; the service director replied the city purchased 12,000 tons under an ODOT shared procurement and "we should be in good shape."

Next steps: the sewer district will continue property acquisitions and design work for the West Pleasant Valley floodplain expansion and will await ODNR's gas-well removal to resume Big Creek restoration. Council members requested continued coordination and meetings with staff to track project timelines and community impacts.