Echo Lake Restoration

An adaptive management approach for a failing embankment may serve as a case study for a regional utility.

A perennial stream and tributary to the West Branch Rocky River, Baker Creek’s drainage is supported by its inline basin, Echo Lake. Since its construction in the 1950’s, Echo Lake has been affected by excessive sedimentation, debris accumulation, and algal blooms. Cracks along the left wall and the weir of the existing dam, as well as a failing headwall along the culvert, left space for seepage and scour holes to undermine the structure. Significant amounts of sediment would likely flow into Baker Creek and downstream to the inline basin if Echo Lake’s embankment were to fail. This could also cause the upstream reach of Baker Creek to reach equilibrium; eventually resulting in significant loss of riparian vegetation as the eroding channel banks undermine the root systems of trees near the stream.

The condition of Echo Lake, its lack of function as a detention basin, and the structural concerns associated with the dam prompted the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) to explore options to remove the impoundment and return Baker Creek to a free-flowing stream. As project managers, Biohabitats conducted environmental resource inventories and investigations, analyzed project constraints, and developed a preliminary restoration concept and approach for Echo Lake and the immediate upstream and downstream reaches of Baker Creek.

The concept proposed an adaptive approach that will work in concert with Baker Creek’s evolution and restore the site in a phased manner, combining passive restoration with adaptive management. The initial phases will maximize the stream system’s potential to restore itself through passive restoration measures. This approach will minimize construction impacts and cost while utilizing the stream flow’s natural ability to form the landscape, establishing an appropriately sized, self-sustaining channel and floodplain. Following the initial passive restoration, adaptive management will be implemented as needed to complete the restoration of the site and ensure ecological uplift and sustained function.

Several basins like Echo Lake exist throughout the NEORSD’s service area, and this project may serve as a case study for the future removal of additional inline impoundments.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Design
• Ecological Restoration