Cuyahoga River

The plight of the river, which empties into Lake Erie at Cleveland, helped inspire the Clean Water Act. Now it attracts kayakers and anglers and could soon be removed from an EPA watchlist.

The annual event organized by Cleveland nonprofit Share the River takes place ahead of the anniversary of the 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River, which focused national attention on the pollution impacting the river.

Akron has brought online a groundbreaking 65-million dollar water treatment facility intended to cut down on the amount of untreated waste ending up in the Cuyahoga River.

In June 1969, a Time Magazine article garnered national attention when it brought to light the water quality conditions in Ohio: a river had literally…

Eight years of work finally paid off Friday with the official designation of the Cuyahoga River as an Ohio Water Trail. The new Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) trail designation means paddlers will have signage, amenities and access points to guide them along the more than 90-mile Cuyahoga River.

Patricia Seymour grew up in Ashtabula in the 1960ss. On bright spring day at the city’s bustling harbor, Seymour recalls a childhood landscape more…

The Black River is wide at its mouth, with parallel banks encased by metal bulkheads. It’s an industrial river, but there is wildlife, like a hissing pair…

Standing on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland’s Industrial Valley, the river looks like chocolate milk surrounded by industry – or the remnants…

On June 23, 1969, a day after the fire on the Cuyahoga River, Mayor Carl Stokes took reporters on a four-stop pollution tour. It would turn out to be the last fire on the river. We retraced the tour 50 years later. Stokes first stopped at the Big Creek Interceptor south of Cleveland. It had been malfunctioning for weeks by the time of the 1969 fire.

The Cuyahoga River has come a long way since the fire 50 years ago. But it still faces an environmental threat in the form of stormwater and development. Rainwater rolling off asphalt and rooftops can carry contaminants into the watershed. Local government agencies across Northeast Ohio have laid out rules for developers to limit the harmful effects of stormwater.