At work

Since the beginning of the Chippewa Flood Control System, and during the past twenty-five years, much of the needed maintenance could not be completed as planned due to lack of funding. This caused many of the channel banks to become overgrown with woody vegetation, which made it near to impossible to maintain the banks or the culverts installed for the purpose of draining the floodwaters. In addition, as trees grew, many would lose branches or fall into the channel causing log jams, bank erosion, and more localized areas of flooding due to the inability of the stream flow to get through the blockage.

Maintaining the 33 miles of channel helps to ensure that flood waters will recede from the land, quickly and efficiently.

During the past ten years, an effort by the Chippewa Subdistrict has been made to provide funding through an assessment permitted by the Conservancy District Laws of Ohio.

*For activities prior to 2005, contact us.

These assessment dollars, which can only be spent on maintenance of the Chippewa Flood Control Project, have been utilized on several projects designed to return the Project to its original design objectives.

Annual Maintenance must be done consistently to keep the Flood Control System working properly.

Special Projects are necessary to keep pace with aging infrastructure of the system's components and changes in our region due to new land development.

Visit our Shorle-Blough project in 2009 for an example of Annual Maintenance. Our GPS / GIS mapping is a Special Project allowing us to locate and evaluate nearly 700 hydraulic structures originally installed throughout the channels. When completed, Subdistrict staff will be able to prepare a proactive maintenance schedule to ensure that structures are repaired or replaced before failure occurs.