Feb 3. Summit County Council committee meetings
Covered by Documenter Wittman Sullivan (see his notes here)
At its Feb. 10 meeting, Summit County Council unanimously approved funding for an emergency repair project that provided a fix to the Mud Brook sewer trunkline in Cuyahoga Falls near Canyon Brook Drive.
Widespread flooding on Aug. 8, 2024 washed out the line, briefly allowing untreated wastewater to flow into Mud Brook, a tributary of the Cuyahoga River, said Michael Vinay, Summit County director of Sanitary Sewer Services. Damage to the line was significant, but a 900-foot temporary bypass returned normal sewer service to the area within 24 hours.
While the flooding caused extensive property damage, largely in West Akron and the Merriman Valley, the trunkline and a separate pumping station in Hudson were the only damage to area sewer systems.
As core wastewater infrastructures, sewer trunklines collect sewage from multiple neighborhood pipe systems. They then connect to intercept tunnels or directly to an area’s wastewater treatment plant.
The Mud Brook line delivered sanitary sewage from portions of Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Munroe Falls, Tallmadge and Silver Lake to Akron’s Water Reclamation Facility in the Merriman Valley, the council resolution stated.
Sewer line repaired within three months of flooding
Designating the repair as an emergency project allowed the county to forgo the normal competitive bidding process. Initial estimates came in at just over $1 million, but the actual cost of the permanent fix came in at $829,386.
County Executive Ilene Shapiro’s office contracted last year with Wingfoot Rental & Development Co., which had performed similar repairs in the past, to install the temporary bypass to the damaged section. The Mogadore company then completed the 820-foot permanent fix to the line by November 2024, Vinay said.
Vinay said that after the line failed, the county was federally obligated to inform the EPA of the leakage. They had to share details of the bypass plan and later receive approval for the final repair. In circumstances requiring quick action, the county pays all the costs upfront.
“This is how this works; we have to spend this money upfront and then we are reimbursed,” Vinay said.
The County Executive’s office completed the full repair of the system in November. The request to Summit County Council for an emergency repair distinction is needed to ensure that all spending, even in emergencies, is appropriately noted in the county’s public record.
County seeks grants to offset repair costs
Additionally, the County Executive sought approval to apply for an Ohio public works grant to help offset the repair cost, covering approximately 60% of the repair.
While the failure of the Mud Brook line resulted from the flooding, it did not contribute to or exacerbate the flooding in any way. Vinay said that this particular line only carried sanitary sewer water and not stormwater from the streets.
“The Mud Brook stream eroded the stream bank in which our sewer was located, washing out part of our sewer,” he said.
The Mud Brook line had been in place since 1972 and was in good working order, only failing due to the unique nature of the event.
For the fix, the county replaced the 1972 line with its now standard 30-inch ductile iron pipe and moved it 50 feet further away from the Mud Brook stream bank.
Nearby road still closed, in need of repair
The storm also washed out a portion of Canyon Brook Drive, which is still awaiting repair. The privately owned road is the landowner’s responsibility.
But Woodridge Local Schools uses the road to pick up kids from Timbertop, Vinay said, so the county would be willing to discuss a partnership with the landowner to repair it.
