© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Buckeye Beat: Lake Erie Erosion

Lake Erie

[Liz] Lisa Kenion lives in Euclid, in a lakeside bungalow with the backyard overlooking the city park. She's a member of the Moss Point Beach Club, a neighborhood of 100 homes with a private little patch of Lake Erie shore property.

- When I get home, I come outside. It's really wonderful, conviviality, and sort of family-like, atmosphere.

[Liz] But a summer storm threatened their lakefront oasis. A chunk of land fell off of their block and right down to the lake.

- We've had to move that fence, not since I was here, but a couple times during the history of say, the older residents here, which may be 45, 50 years. It's been moved twice, so they've lost a significant amount of land, and we don't wanna lose anymore.

[Liz] Lake Erie water levels have been two to three feet higher than average for the last two years. And with a lot of heavy rain this past year, coastal land is disappearing.

It's not just individuals dealing with this problem, cities are also finding ways to stop increased erosion. A few streets from Lisa Kenion's Moss Point Beach, the city of Euclid is starting work on its waterfront improvement plans.

- So, we are at Simms park, which is one of the very few places in the city of Euclid that is publicly accessible to the public to get to the lakefront.

[Liz] Lukacsy-Love says erosion at the park is caused by two factors, the first being those high water levels.

- And so, what happens is that the waves are coming up higher than they normally are and are taking down the earth from the hillside and pulling it into the water, causing this scooping out at the bottom, which then makes the top of the bluff a lot weaker.

[Liz] The second reason for erosion? Lukacsy-Love says the more roads, parking lots, and buildings that are constructed, the less ground there is for rain to sink into. So, rainwater flows toward the lake, scooping the shore along with it. To restore the shore, the City of Euclid is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, ODNR.

- You know, we're doing double duty where we're restoring the natural habitat for a lot of this wildlife, but what we're really doing is mitigating this erosion problem.

[Liz] The city's $11 1/2 million plan restores the shore and built a sea wall to block the waves. To keep the area looking nice, a walking trail will be added along the top. Stopping shore erosion is about more than saving land. It's about preserving the shore's ecosystem. That's why any changes to Lake Erie's shore have to be approved by ODNR.

They encourage using plants to prevent further erosion. And in some cases, like at Euclid, they turn to stones to help keep the water from washing away soft earth. Scudder Mackey works for ODNR's Office of Costal Management.

[Scudder] We wanna make sure that the materials that are used are safe, not broken up blocks of concrete with rebar sticking out, or asphalt.

[Liz] The state offers free consultations to lakefront property owners, where an engineer surveys a property and offers some guidance on the best way to protect the shoreline.

Still, for folks like Lisa Kenion, the expense of keeping her backyard from sliding into the lake is up to her and her neighbors. But they are moving ahead by scheduling a visit from a state engineer. And Kenion has been looking into what native plants they can add to their banks.

- People are really invested here. They love the wildlife. There's, you know, eagles, and herons, and minx, and coyotes, and like rabbits. You know, all kinds of song birds; it's a good birding area. And we try to be as conscious as we can about it, and we are very concerned about it, 'cause we love this and we wanna conserve it.