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Fairview Park committee hears update on equalization tank study funded by federal grant
Summary
City staff and consultants told a council committee the study identifies candidate storage basins to reduce basement flooding and lower peak flows to the Rocky River treatment plant; the city received $1.1 million in federal funding and the final report is due in August.
The Environment, Public Works, Planning, Zoning and Development Committee met June 22 to hear an update on the city's equalization (EQ) tank study, which uses hydraulic modeling to identify where temporary storage basins would most effectively reduce basement flooding and peak flows to the Rocky River Wastewater Treatment Plant. "This storage basin is gonna go a long way towards reducing basement flooding," said Brian Rodney of Brown and Caldwell, the subconsultant leading the modeling work.
City staff said the study is funded by a $1,100,000 congressional appropriation secured through Congressman Max Miller and authorized by the council in June 2024. Consultants described using calibrated hydraulic models and a database of reported basement flooding to prioritize locations and size basins. Rodney said the team is focusing on short-duration, high-intensity storms and will compare benefits (flood damages avoided) to life-cycle costs to develop benefit–cost ratios.
Why it matters: when sanitary systems are overwhelmed by inflow and infiltration (I&I) during storms, sewers can back up into basements and high downstream flows can cause treatment-plant overflows — a source of regulatory and water-quality concern. "When flows exceed [the plant's] capacity, they can overflow and produce releases of untreated sewage to Lake Erie," Rodney said, noting that peak-flow reduction at the plant is one metric the team will use to prioritize sites.
The presentation identified multiple candidate sites and approaches and described tradeoffs between local basement-protection and downstream peak-flow reduction. Staff said the overall analysis is expected to be done by the end of July, with a final report delivered by the end of August. The committee voted to keep the update as an ongoing committee item pending that report.
