page_title: Abram Creek (Ohio)
section_title: Water quality and wildlife habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Abram Creek (Ohio) / Basin / Water quality and wildlife habitat
caption_attribution_description: English: Abram Creek in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. The creek follows the property line between light industrial properties on the left and residential properties on the right.
context_page_description: Abram Creek, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is a tributary of the Rocky River, draining 10.6 square miles in parts of Berea, Brook Park, Cleveland, Middleburg Heights, and a very small portion of Parma Heights.
  The watershed comprises residential, commercial, light industrial, and natural areas, including significant portions of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the NASA Glenn Research Center. A section of the upper creek, including Lake Isaac, Lake Abram, and the Lake-to-Lake Trail are owned and managed by the Cleveland Metroparks. The creek has been transformed extensively by humans, from extensive swamp, to onion-producing cropland, to polluted creek, to its present, mixed state.
context_section_description: The course, extent, and sources of Abram Creek and its lakes have been dramatically altered over the years.  Lake Abram has been shrunk from 50-60 acres to its present 5 acres.  Much of the creek has been channelized or culverted.  Significant sources of pollution, such as the wastewater treatment plants for Brook Park and Middleburg Heights have been decommissioned.  Deicing runoff from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has been significantly contained.  Still, runoff from residential and commercial properties remain as a significant pollution source.
  A study performed by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) in 2012 examined Abram Creek by sampling at 3 locations as well as in the Rocky River just upstream and downstream of its confluence with Abram Creek.  Assessments were made of water chemistry, habitat assessment, electofishing, and benthic macroinvertibrates.  The narrative noted that two wastewater treatment plants that discharged into Abram Creek were closed in the 1990s and deicing waste from the airport had been diverted to NEORSD in the early 2000s.  The assessments generally indicated some improvement in most metrics from previous assessments, but still had non-attainments, particularly for upstream sample locations.  The report concluded that significant improvement of the metrics in the future is unlikely due to a variety of factors.
  A study was conducted on the effect of culverting at the airport.  The authors concluded that the measured water quality metrics upstream and downstream of the culverts were not changed, suggesting that runoff management practices on the construction site were effective. However, the culvert does block the migration of fish between the lower and upper portions of the creek.
caption: Abram Creek in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. The creek follows the property line between light industrial properties on the left and residential properties on the right.
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