PARMA, Ohio — After years of flooding, property damage, and road closures in Parma, a major catch basin project is now complete.
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has officially unveiled the new $6 million Baldwin Creek Dell Haven Basin.
It's designed to reduce flooding in the area near York and Pleasant Valley roads.
The basin, which is located behind Holy Family Parish and Pleasant Valley Elementary School, is intended to capture and temporarily store stormwater during heavy rain events before releasing it downstream.
Officials say the basin can hold nearly seven million gallons of runoff water from the Dell Haven neighborhood.
For residents who have dealt with repeated flooding for decades, the project brings a sense of relief.
“It’s happened so many times the cost was just unbearable for me to deal with any longer,” said Cheryl Poole, a former Pleasant Valley Road resident, in a prior interview with News 5.
The project took about a year to complete and was partially funded through federal dollars, including a $2 million appropriation through the United States EPA.
According to NEORSD, the basin was built to reduce flooding along nearby roads and lower the risk of damage to homes and businesses in one of Parma’s most flood-prone areas.
During normal weather conditions, the basin will remain dry and function as green space.
Fencing currently surrounds the property.
“This basin is basically creating storage to hold back water prior to it moving downstream into that intersection,” said Kim Colich, NEORSD’s Stormwater Program Manager. “So we’re reducing the flood risk in the neighborhood.”
The project is part of an ongoing flood mitigation effort in Parma.
To make room for the basin and increase flood storage capacity, the sewer district and the City of Parma purchased more than a dozen flood-prone properties in the area.
News 5 first reported on those efforts back in 2025.
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Sewer District officials confirm they are looking into purchasing more homes in the area, in an effort to restore the flood plain to a natural state.
As part of the restoration work for the new basin, crews planted roughly 100 native trees throughout the site.
Officials say early results have been positive.
Officials with the Sewer District report receiving fewer flooding-related calls since the basin became operational, and Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter recently said the area handled a significant rain event without the widespread flooding issues that residents had experienced in the past.
