I recently read this book, which was written maybe ten years ago by a man named Stanley Hedeen of Xavier University.

 

It was a fascinating read about the history of the creek, its industrialization, its conversion into an open sewer and the city/county's many attempts to control industrial waste and combined sewer overflows.  A lot of the book also chronicles the changes in the ecology of the stream.

 

Anyone who is interested in ecology would enjoy it, as well as anyone who likes Cincinnati history in general.

 

It's available at the public library and I suggest picking it up if you live here in Cincy.  At under 200 pages, it's also a pretty quick read.

 

Mill Creek: An Unnatural History of an Urban Stream, Stanley Hedeen

 

More on the Mill Creek (lots of stuff, maps, etc.):

Mill Creek Restoration Project

Sounds interesting. I'll check it out. I am currently working on my question concerning Music Hall's pedimental statue and have already found the answer apparently. According to Geo. F. Roth in Cincinnati's Music Hall (Virginia Beach, Va., 1978), "A crowning, winged goddess figure shown at the point of the east gable never was installed." I suspected that the early drawings showing it might have been indicative of the original plan which was never quite realized. The decorative flag poles and iron work were part of the original bldg., but Roth says the architect made no provision for raising and lowering the flags. Oops, slight omission there Samuel Hannaford. Anyway, it is a very nice book and has lots of good photographs and drawings. It was published at the time of the reopening after the Corbett renovation in 1977-78. I must have seen it at some point, but never bought it and had forgotten about it, but the Public Library has 7 or 8 books on Music Hall.

I should check one of those Music Hall books out. Is there one in particular that stood out?

The one I like best so far is the one I mentioned. The title is Cincinnati's Music Hall, by Zane L. Miller and George F. Roth, 1978. The call no. is 780.977178.qC5745c.

I told you about the time the creek flooded and covered those garden plots in Wyoming, right? When it receded, you wouldn't believe the crap and muck it left behind...

^ Unfortunately, I would believe it. If it's that bad at Wyoming, just think of how it is farther down. Yuck!

 

Cincinnatus--thanks for the info.

While the Mill Creek has improved, it needs more work.  From the 11/24/04 Enquirer:

 

 

$375,000 grant to pay for cleanup study

By Dan Klepal

Enquirer staff writer

 

The group trying to clean up the Mill Creek will receive a $375,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency next year that will pay for a study of how much the cleanup will cost and how much money a cleaner creek - one that would attract people and be suitable for fishing, canoeing and other recreation - will generate for the local economy.

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041124/NEWS01/411240358/1077

Possibly a very bad idea.  They already messed it up enough by channelization.  From the 12/13/04 Enquirer:

 

 

U.S. wants to widen Mill Creek

$607M flooding plan replaces $1.6B tunnel

By Liz Oakes

Enquirer staff writer

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will recommend a $607 million widening project to solve Mill Creek flooding, discarding a costlier plan to bore a tunnel under the creek to carry away floodwaters.

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

IF YOU GO

• What: Open-house presentation and public comment on the Mill Creek General Re-evaluation Report

• When: Jan. 6, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Where: Evendale Recreation Center, 10500 Reading Road

• Information: (513) 563-2247

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041213/NEWS01/412130343

 

An update from the 12/23/04 Enquirer:

 

 

Mill Creek's $607M fix- who pays?

By Liz Oakes

Enquirer staff writer

 

Worried they might be asked to cough up millions of dollars while facing budget cuts, cities from Cincinnati to Sharonville are huddling over a $607 million plan to reduce Mill Creek flooding.

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041223/NEWS01/412230358/1056

 

My question is 'Is it really that necessary?'.

I live in Carthage a 1/4 mile from the Mill Creek and haven't seen it flood once in the last 2 years. Now, I don't cross over it everyday, so I guess it could have flooded without me knowing it, but it can't flood all that often but who know's.(I'm not the expert)

I think most of the problems lie father upcreek, in the areas where it hasn't been channelized.  To be honest, I think the majority of the problems are within the watershed and not specifically along the creek (ditch) itself.

Isnt it the most polluted water way in America? How should pay for it? The industry along that creek of course. Proctor and Gamble should fork up some money. The mill creak actually go through the plant in St Bernard.

It's one of the most polluted urban waterways in the country.  I'm not sure where it ranks, but it's been in the Top 20 and American Rivers named it "the most endangered urban river in North America" back in the late 90s.

 

I'd say the single biggest culprit in the pollution these days isn't industry, but the Metropolitan Sewer District.  The second most is runoff from industrial sites and adjacent surface parking lots.  Third would be heavy industry, though they are also the easiest to monitor and thus have cut back substantially on the amount of waste they allow to enter the stream.

 

The channelization has made the entirety from Carthage/Elmwood Place to the river an "unnatural" being, meaning that it no longer maintains a normal life cycle and is unable to clean itself.

Well, here's the most recent plan.  While I'm not for ANY concrete being used, 10 percent is not so bad.  From the 1/7/05 Enquirer:

 

 

Army engineers unveil plan for flood protection

$606M project includes wider channel

By Dan Klepal

Enquirer staff writer

 

EVENDALE - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' $606 million project to protect about 1,900 buildings - including 739 single-family homes - from Mill Creek flooding was presented to the public Thursday with an open-house style meeting that more than 70 people attended.

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050107/NEWS01/501070367/1056/news01

 

From the 1/11/05 Cincinnati Business Courier:

 

 

MSD awards $5M Mill Creek contract

 

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati picked the MACTEC engineering firm to handle a $5 million project to improve Mill Creek in Hamilton County.

 

The contract calls for Atlanta-based MACTEC to improve Mill Creek's water quality, stabilize its streambanks, restore the wildlife habitat and complete about 1.5 miles of the Mill Creek Greenway Trail. The projects are part of MSD's Global Consent Decree approved last June that requires the district to operate a Water-in-Basement program and eliminate and reduce sewage overflows to Mill Creek and its tributaries. The projects will be completed in lieu of paying $5.3 million in fines and penalties to the government, according to a news release.

 

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/dailyedition.html#5

 

$600 million for this!  For a problem created by these people's poor planning.  They should have to carry the insurance rates that their stupidity necessitates, plain and simple.  If that means they can't afford to continue to live and to build in a flood zone, then so much the better.  Same goes for people living in a hurricane zone or on a fault line.

X - perhaps - that's a debateable point.  But even granting that, nonetheless you've got 1900 buildings in a potentially very valuable area that can be written off, left to suffer potentially devastating flood damage, or else put in a position to be rather safe from flooding (caused not only by the placement of the houses, but also by the channelization and land use decisions made by the authorities).  We can map cost to value here pretty directly, with immediate amelioration of the costs in the form of property values and taxes, for residents, businesses and industry, in addition to the long term benefits for growth in the area.  Let's try getting that same return from highway expenditures!

It's funny seeing college kids taking pics of the mill creek where spring grove crosses the creek..you can see them thinking EVil corporations!!  MSD is the real polluter but it doesnt look as cool because splooge  isnt shooting out of the concrete walls like at P&G. one thing is for sure though I wouldnt eat the fish or swim in that creek

^ I don't know what's funny about it.  I'm just glad someone cares.  And if it weren't for people like that, nothing would have been done about the water quality at all.

I'm not saying it won't pay off, I'm saying we shouldn't subsidize the irresponsibility of developers homeowners, and businesses.  There is no shortage of land to build upon in this country that is relatively safe- that won't require us to subsidize its infrastruture to the tune of $600 million.

 

In addition, the growth you're talking of will mostly be sprawl anyway.  Comparing it to highway spending actually gets at my point- we shouldn't be spending this money to create the infrastructure to urbanize yet more farms and natural habitat, including flood plains, we should be using it to maintain and improve what we have already.  Highways, stream widening, sewer extension, etc. its all part of the same problem-we build new, colonize, and abandon the old with no thought to better alternatives.

Widening parts of the Mill Creek from Arlington Heights upstream to the Butler County line would eliminate nearly all potential flood damage and protect nearby companies such as Ford, GE and General Mills, said Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Carol Baternik.

 

Reading and Evendale aren't the sprawlburbs, and this improvement ends at the Butler county line.  I don't know enough to say if it's the best solution or not, but this does seem much more along the lines of preserving what we have like you mentioned - I mean, the alternative is to move residents and businesses out of Reading and Evendale.

Fair enough.  I got the impression that this was outer ring suburbs.  So its inner ring suburbs with outer ring suburbs upriver causing the trouble?

^ Pretty much.  The Mill Creek corridor is the main industrial corridor and most of its built environment has been there 100-150 years.

This editorial was in the 1/18/05 Enquirer:

 

 

Greater Cincinnati's other flood zone

Editorials

 

At a time when Ohio River flooding has dominated news here, the Army Corps of Engineers will soon wrap up public comment on its $606 million flood-control plan for the Mill Creek. The public needs to take a long look at this plan before the digging starts.

 

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050118/EDIT01/501180306/1020/EDIT

 

From what I understand, the developing of the watershed in bulter county and other places is responsible for the flooding. A great deal of that development has generally happened after stormwater detention requirements were instituted. Does detention work? or is it really just increasing the baseflow in the stream after the storm?

 

The Corps is still a beast set in their old ways...channel the water quickly through, with out solving the source problem, that is, too much runoff. They should be more interested using natural stream design etc, that actively recharges the aquifer...there should be a lot of porus glacial outwash in the valley BTW for that. I think the 600 million could be better spent on targeted efforts to reduce runoff...natural storage areas (wetlands)..."greening" of existing developments by reducing the hardscape drainage features. We have progressed alot in our understanding of low hydrologic impact developments. Several smaller solutions in the sub-watersheds (on existing vacant lands)...would be more cost effecice and environmentally friendly

And not one of our fine papers could track down the link where the plan (DEIS etal) can be downloaded

 

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Mill%20Creek/

 

Click on "Draft General Reevaluation Report (GRR), Dec. 2004" to get the document downloads

^ Have you read any of the stuff from the Mill Creek Restoration Project?  They have some pretty cool ideas that don't involve a concrete ditch.

^ Have you read any of the stuff from the Mill Creek Restoration Project? They have some pretty cool ideas that don't involve a concrete ditch.

 

Nope...quite a large document! seems like the paper was stressing the widening and paving of the channel. My point really is that they should stress on solutions up in the water shed, and not just on it's outlet (the Mill Creek)

An update from the 2/8/05 Enquirer:

 

 

Deadline nears for Mill Creek plan

Flooding project, price tag far from agreement

By Liz Oakes

Enquirer staff writer

 

As the clock runs out on a federal deadline for a $607 million proposal to fix flooding of Mill Creek, the question of who will pay for the huge construction project remains unanswered, and some local officials and environmentalists are voicing opposition.

 

Mill Creek Restoration Project, a nonprofit environmental organization, has issued a critique opposing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposal to widen the channel, saying it would cause "irreparable damage."

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

IF YOU GO

What: Hearing on Mill Creek General Reevaluation Report.

When: Cincinnati City Council's Neighborhood and Public Services Committee meeting, 11 a.m. today.

Where: Cincinnati City Hall, third floor, council chambers.

Information: (513) 352-3000.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050208/NEWS01/502080378/1056

 

Follow-up:

 

The final report is in.  It's a hell of a lot of reading, and even I'm not going to get bogged down in this. 

 

Basically, the "Ring Levee" plan has no support from the Mill Creek Watershed Council (MCWC) and the local communities, as they don't know how it would work.  The "Deep Tunnel" proposal has been ruled out by the Army Corps of Engineers as not having the cost/benefit ratio to justify it.  The MCWC and local communities support this plan, but it's cost prohibitive as far as local share.   So there's a third choice, "Channel Modification", that will probably be the way they go.

 

The local share of the Channel Modification plan would be $144 million, while Deep Tunnel would be an astounding $1.2 billion.

 

The report is now being circulated around and discussed.  No word on what comes next.

 

You can check out the entire report here:

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/MILL%20CREEK/  (same link Mr. Sparkle gave...links are on the right side)

 

Also see the Mill Creek Watershed Council:

http://www.millcreekwatershed.org/home.html

 

The MSD will be holding a public meeting.  From the 4/18/05 Cincinnati Business Courier:

 

 

MSD plans public meeting on Mill Creek projects

 

The Metropolitan Sewer District is hosting a May 5 meeting to get input from the public regarding environmental projects on the Mill Creek.

 

The meeting is slated for 6 p.m. at the Caldwell Nature Center on North Bend Road, according to a news release.

 

The projects are part of MSD's global consent decree to address combined sewer overflow and water-in-basement problems in Greater Cincinnati. The meeting will focus on projects in the Caldwell-Seymour area and the lower four miles of Mill Creek, according to the release.

 

© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/04/18/daily10.html

 

From the 7/7/05 Enquirer:

 

 

MAP: Mill Creek

 

Mill Creek project threatened

Group can't raise money for flood-control venture

By Dan Klepal

Enquirer staff writer

 

A $562 million project to protect 1,300 homes and businesses from floodwaters of the lower Mill Creek is in jeopardy because the Mill Creek Valley Conservancy District has been unable to raise the local share of the cost.

 

The project, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would stretch from Sharonville to Arlington Heights and needs $418 million from the federal government.

 

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/NEWS01/507070384/1056/rss02

 

From CityBeat, 12/20/07:

 

 

PHOTO: Mike Miller takes a break while canoeing on one of the less obviously polluted sretches of the Mill Creek, a long-troubled urban stream.  Photo By Mill Creek Watershed Council

 

PHOTO: Do they know what they're getting into? Kids hang out near the Mill Creek.  Photo By Mill Creek Watershed Council

 

A Creek Runs Through It 

Mill Creek meanders from natural to nasty

By Margo Pierce

 

The Commodore of the Mill Creek Yacht Club believes the waterway is in better shape than it used to be.

 

Although there are still abuses occurring today, it's "slightly better," according to Bruce Koehler.

 

 

http://www.citybeat.com/2006-12-20/news2.shtml

 

Cincinnati's Mill Creek, where Mother Nature claws for her niche

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/06/16/story14.html

Mill Creek: What's the plan?

This article first appeared in the April 18, 2010 Sunday Enquirer

By Jessica Brown, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 19, 2010

 

The Mill Creek helped build Cincinnati. And the city nearly killed it.

 

After fostering Cincinnati's industry, the meandering waterway became the city's dumping ground and remains unfit for people to swim in or for most fish to live in.

 

But advocates see a much greener, brighter future for this often forgotten creek.

 

--

 

Timeline of the Mill Creek

Cincinnati Enquirer, April 19, 2010

The City of Cincinnati Stormwater Management Utility has posted a video of the Mill Creek Barrier Dam in operation during this year's flood, along with a brief explanation of its operations.

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/stormwater/flood-management/

 

Here's a direct link to the video:

https://vimeo.com/257134741

Northside down by the White Castle would be underwater right now if not for this thing and all of the other flood controls. 

 

In the 1937 food, the Ohio River caused the Mill Creek to flood all the way up to Lockland.  So there was a reverse flow for 10~ miles. 

So the primary purpose of this dam is to prevent the Ohio River from reversing the flow of the Mill Creek? Interesting.

So the primary purpose of this dam is to prevent the Ohio River from reversing the flow of the Mill Creek? Interesting.

 

Yes, it keeps the Ohio River from flooding the Mill Creek Valley.  Meanwhile, they pump the Mill Creek's water over the dam into the Ohio to keep it low. 

The Mill Creek WAS the Ohio at one time.

The Mill Creek WAS the Ohio at one time.

 

That's why when you're in Clifton and you look across to Western Hills it looks like you're looking across to Kentucky.

The Mill Creek WAS the Ohio at one time.

 

Deep Stage Ohio era.

 

Actually, It was the old Licking River that ran north the Mill Creek Valley. The Ohio ran north thru Lunken and the "Norwood Trough" roughly where the Lateral is now

 

I read a geologic account written in the 1970s that described a brief period when the Ohio did actually travel southward through the Mill Creek valley...then somehow the river busted through over by Lunken Airport on its current path.  Maybe that account was wrong.  The existing course of the river is only 10,000 years old. 

Deep Stage State Ohio

 

Forget buckeyes; OSU/Columbus can have them. Ohio is now the Deep State. Watch out, bots!

Norwood Trough would be a great band name.

City Beat has a feature on the Mill Creek this week:

 

https://www.citybeat.com/news/news-feature/article/21003033/cincinnatis-mill-creek-rising

 

Mill Creek Rising

How the much-maligned waterway at Cincinnati’s heart is getting its groove back

 

 

In a bit of grass in Salway Park, across from the stately lawns of Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery, there is a rectangular stone bearing a simple, mysterious inscription: “Mahketewah.”

 

The stone came from an aging, now-demolished warehouse building in the city's Queensgate industrial area, which is fitting in its own way. But the word itself, roughly meaning "it is black," is far older.

 

It’s the name native people, likely Shawnee, gave the waterway that now cuts through the heart of Cincinnati. Today, we call it the Mill Creek — if we talk about it at all.

These articles come out about every other year, but that creek is still pretty dumpy.

It's good to know the Mill Creek is getting better and thus the Ohio River as well.

 

I was looking for articles on the Ohio River in particular and the water clarity and if it's improving, etc.  but couldn't find anything really.