Sandusky city officials ‘working as hard as possible’ to lower historically high water levels in Sandusky Bay

SANDUSKY, Ohio (WOIO) - City officials in Sandusky are working as fast as they can to put a plan in place to stem the rising waters of the Sandusky Bay.

Aaron Klein, the Sandusky City Engineer, tells 19 News that the Sandusky Bay is at a historically high water level, at least as far back as the level has been measured.

One of the critical issues, according to Klein, is that the water level in Lake Erie is so high that the outfalls from the Bay are actually working in reverse and water is flowing back into the bay from the lake.

The city is now working with a underwater diving contractor to put a plan in place to plug the outfalls and build a system of pipes and pumps that would move water from the bay back into the lake but it’s going to take some time.

As it stands now some city streets are covered with water and closed, and some people and businesses along the shoreline of the bay are dealing with flooding issues.

Brandon Ness and his family are the owners of the Pipe Creek Marina, and in the 20 years the family has run the business, Ness has never seen anything close to what he is dealing with now.

“Best we can tell off our property we’re looking at over 2-foot higher than our normal,” Ness said.

The Ness family owns multiple homes around the marina, and they are dealing with varying levels of flooding in all of the homes.

The marina has lost multiple docks to the high water and business is very slow to start the season.

“From what we can tell a lot of our dockers are holding off until the water levels recede and our income is a little bit lower to this point,” Ness said.

Ness is hopeful that the city’s plan will work and also hopes the city will apply for grants that can help shore up the shoreline.

The quickest solution though, Ness believes, is a turn in the weather, including a break in the rain, a consistent rise in temperatures that would lead to evaporation and a shift in the wind that he says has been blowing in from the north and pushing water in towards the shoreline.

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