The Doan Brook Handbook Laura C. Gooch CLEVELAND,OHIO Copyright © 2001 Laura C. Gooch Library of Congress Control Number: 2001116498 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or International Standard Book Number (ISBN): manner without permission from the publisher, 0-9709108-0-0 except in the case of brief quotations embod- ied in critical articles and reviews. However, we encourage readers to use the material in Printed in Canada this book and, in most cases, will gladly give permission for reproduction for educational, non-commercial purposes. “A Brook in the City” by Robert Frost from THE POETRY OF ROBERT FROST edited by Edward Connery Lathem, © 1923, 1969 by Henry Holt First Edition and Co., copyright 1951 by Robert Frost. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Published by The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes Cover photographs: 2600 South Park Boulevard Great Blue Heron with a Snail at the Lower Cleveland, Ohio 44120-1699 Shaker Lake; Eastern Chipmunk; Greek 216-321-5935 Cultural Garden; Chicory Flower; Doan Brook Waterfall; Horseshoe Lake. Photographs by L.C. Gooch. With assistance from a grant by The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District 3826 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2504 Design and layout by Andrew Faris Under the direction of Professor John Brett Buchanan GLYPH[X Graphic Design Studio Kent State University Kent, Ohio To Mary Elizabeth Croxton, Jean Eakin, Betty Miller, and all the women of the garden clubs. Without you there would be little left to say about Doan Brook. Acknowledgements Preparation of The Doan Brook Handbook required the help of many people. Nancy King Smith and Jeremie Maehr of the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes helped shape the Handbook from start to finish and were instrumental in making it a reality.They also provided much valuable input, coor- dination, and moral support along the way, as did Victoria Mills. Betsy Yingling from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and Roy Rudolph from Montgomery Watson, Inc., provided technical input and data whenever I asked.Betsy also reviewed much of the text. David Haywood and Leonard Sekuler of Montgomery Watson helped with the graphics. Janice Eatman of Case Western Reserve University told me about some of the history of the lower watershed.Catherine Winans and Mary Jo Groppe of the Shaker Historical Society and its Elizabeth Nord Library provided insight into upper watershed history and helped me find relevant material in their collection. Librarians from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Harold Terry Clark Library and the Western Reserve Historical Society were also very helpful. Many people reviewed sections of the text for technical content, including: Mark Knapp, Leslie Krebs, and Stephanie Thomas from the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes; John Grabowski from the Western Reserve Historical Society; Bob and Florence Spurney; Catherine Winans and Mary Jo Groppe of the Shaker Historical Society; Leo Deininger; and Peter Whiting and Joseph Koonce from Case Western Reserve University.Cathie Podojil, Bob Gooch, and Rachel Gooch provided general editorial review. My husband, David Kazdan, helped in too many ways to mention. The Handbook design and layout were done by Andrew Faris of Kent State University’s GLYPH[X graphic design studio, under the direction of Professor John Brett Buchanan.Andrew also worked on many of the graphics and coordinated the printing. Funding for the Handbook was provided by a special projects grant from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. The George Gund Foundation has provided general support to the Nature Center for on-going work related to Doan Brook. Contents 1 Introduction to Doan Brook ............................................1 2 The Hand of Man: The Human History of Doan Brook ................3 2.1 Who Was Here First? Pre-European History . .3 2.2 European Explorers: Moses Cleaveland and the Surveyors . .4 DefinitionsandOrientation ..............................................4 2.3 First European Settlers: Nathaniel Doan and the Lower Watershed . .5 2.4 The Valley of God’s Pleasure: The Shakers and the Upper Watershed . .7 WhoWeretheNorthUnionShakers? .......................................8 2.5 The City Moves East: Development of the Watershed . .9 The Rise and Fall of the Great Stone Grist Mill . .12 2.5.1 TheLowerWatershed .............................................13 2.5.2 TheUpperWatershed .............................................13 2.6 PreservingtheLand:TheStoryoftheParks ...............................14 2.7 The Brook in the City: Citizen Activists and the Fight for the Doan . .15 3 The Shape of the Brook: Physical Features That Form the Stream . .19 3.1 WhereIsIt?TheBrook’sLocation ........................................19 BrookLocationFacts ...................................................20 3.2 Where Does the Water Come From? The Doan Brook Watershed . .20 3.3 Why Does the Brook Flow When It Isn’t Raining? The Contribution of . .23 Groundwater 3.3.1 The Influence of the Groundwater System . .23 3.3.2 Doan Brook’s Groundwater System . .24 Groundwater Use in the Doan Brook Watershed ......................24 3.4 How Is It Shaped? Brook and Watershed Topography . .25 Experiencing Topography Firsthand: The Watershed by Bicycle . .26 3.5 The Bones of the Doan: Watershed Geology and Soils . .27 4 Who Else Lives Here? The Natural Environment of the Brook . .29 4.1 Vegetation Along the Brook and in the Watershed . .29 The Pre-Settlement Forest: .............................................30 Upper Watershed ................................................30 Escarpment and Gorge ...........................................30 Lower Watershed ................................................30 4.2 WildlifeAlongtheBrookandintheWatershed .............................32 Pre-Settlement Wildlife ................................................32 4.2.1 Birds............................................................33 i 4.2.2 Mammals .......................................................33 4.2.3 Reptiles and Amphibians . .34 4.3 Who Lives in the Brook? Lake and Stream Dwellers . .34 Macroinvertebrates: Water Quality Canaries ..............................34 4.4 Who Might Live Here? Habitat Potential of the Brook and Its Surroundings . .35 The New Fish in the Brook .............................................36 5 The Urban Brook .......................................................39 5.1 How Have We Changed the Brook? Alterations to the Stream Shape . .39 5.1.1 DamsandLakes..................................................39 5.1.2 Culverts and the Vanishing Brook . .39 5.1.3 Channelization: The Inflexible Stream . .40 5.1.4 Other Stream Channel Changes . .40 The Impact of Change: ...........................................41 Lake Construction ...........................................41 Culverts ...................................................41 Channelization .............................................41 5.2 Moving and Shaking in the Watershed: Changes in the Brook’s Drainage Area . .42 5.2.1 Changes in the Watershed Land Area . .42 5.2.2 ChangesintheNatureoftheLand ..................................42 The Impact of Change: ...........................................43 Changes in Watershed Size and Shape ..........................43 Changes in Watershed Surface .................................43 5.3 Where Do the Sewers Fit In? The Sewershed and Storm Sewer Drainage . .44 5.3.1 The Sanitary Sewer System and the Sewershed . .44 5.3.2 Separated Storm and Sanitary Sewers: The Upper Watershed . .45 Why Does the Storm Sewer Stink? Problems with Separated Sewers . .45 5.3.3 The Combined Sewer System: The Lower Watershed . .46 Who Owns the Sewers? ...........................................46 5.3.4 Flowing into the Doan: Where Storm and Combined Sewers Feed . .46 the Brook The Impact of Change: Sewers .....................................46 5.3.5 Change in Progress: The Impact of the Heights/Hilltop Interceptor . .48 5.4 What Difference Does It Make? Summarizing the Impacts of Change . .48 6 Is It Polluted? Water Quality in the Brook .............................51 6.1 How Dirty Is the Brook? What Water Quality Measurements Show . .51 6.1.1 WaterQualityintheBrook .........................................52 6.1.2 WaterQualityintheLakes .........................................52 6.1.3 SedimentContamination ..........................................55 ii Contents 6.2 Why Does It Matter? The Impact of Contamination . .55 6.3 Where Does the Pollution Come From? Contaminant Sources . .56 6.3.1 SourcesofBacteria ...............................................56 6.3.2 SourcesofNutrients ..............................................56 6.3.3 SourcesofOtherContamination ....................................57 6.4 SolutionstoDoanBrookPollution........................................57 7 The Brook in the Rain: The Hydrology of the Doan ...................59 7.1 AHistoryofDoanBrookFloods .........................................59 7.2 Where Does the Water Come From? Watershed Runoff Patterns . .61 7.3 Why Is There a Flood? The Brook Under Duress . .61 7.4 How Strong are the Dams? The Safety of the Shaker Lake Dams . .62 7.5 How Big is the Pipe? The University Circle Culvert and the Downstream . .62 Channels What Do the Lakes Do? Lake Sedimentation and Flood Storage . .63 7.6 WhatCanWeDo?SolutionstoFlooding...................................64 Impact on Flooding: What Does the MLK Detention Basin Do?