A two-day June rainstorm stalled over a few towns in Northeast Ohio in 2006, dumping six to eight inches of rain in just a few hours. A lumber company near a small creek saw two vehicles and most of their stock float away in the resulting flood, suffering nearly a quarter million dollar loss. Statewide, storm damages exceeded $150 million.
A few miles from that lumberyard, the upstream Chippewa Creek watershed had once been farmland, rolling hills created when the ice age carved out Lake Erie, depositing drift at the northern edge of Appalachia. In the previous century most of those pioneer farms between Cleveland and Akron had been developed into housing, corporate office parks and interstate highways, all containing hundreds of acres of concrete and asphalt surfaces — and all impermeable, causing rainwater and ice melt to run off rather than through the pavement.
That summer storm of 2006 could have caused far less damage had much of the paved areas been installed with permeable surfaces, which return the water through the pavement and back into the soils. And now a unique opportunity has come to the nearby township of Hinckley, Ohio. Their ageing elementary school is scheduled for replacement, with a new, larger building already through design review. But what about the new parking lots, and sidewalks?
A group of Hinckley residents representing their local chapter of international environmental organization 350.org are working to keep the new school’s site — formerly 22 acres of open farmland — a tract with natural runoff. The benefits of installing permeable surfaces are many, and most also save money over the years. In milder weather, the rain falling on and near the school will continue to recharge the local water table and keep pollutants from entering local streams and rivers. With freezing conditions, less salt would be required for de-icing, reducing maintenance and plowing costs.
The local school board is being encouraged to work with their architects, designers and builders to pursue grants to fund permeable pavers, both as sound construction practice that addresses the Hinckley 2015 Master Plan as well as an investment in their school, town, district and state. Two other new elementary schools are also scheduled for replacement in the Highland School District and present further opportunities for permeable surfaces, to protect the environment, keep the children safer and invest in their future.