The Plum Creek Dam was built in 1887 and no longer serves its original purpose.  The dam is a Class III structure under the jurisdiction of Ohio’s Dam Safety Laws regulated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) through periodic inspections.  The last inspection of the dam performed in 1995 resulted in recommendations for the City to: prepare an Emergency Action Plan, prepare an Operation and Maintenance Manual, perform hydrologic and hydraulic studies to determine modifications needed to increase the discharge/storage capacity of the dam to pass the design flood, prepare plans and specifications for the necessary modifications, and rehabilitate the lake drain and install an adequate silting basin.  No action has been taken on these recommendations to date.

The existing Mogadore Road Culvert is over 20 years old and is in poor condition.  The 2008 Bridge Inspection Report noted the following existing issues: several bolts rusted, the culvert is bulging in two locations, water is running under the entire culvert length, the ground is washed out at the outlet 4.5 feet deep, both headwalls need replaced.  Many of the existing conditions mentioned above go back at least as far as the 1985 Bridge Inspection Report.  The conditions have deteriorated over the years.

The Plum Creek Reservoir, adjacent to Plum Creek Park, was last dredged in 1978.  Approximately 24,000 cubic yards of material was removed from the reservoir in dredging and rechanneling operations and a 40-foot x 9-foot silt basin was constructed.  The reservoir was reportedly in need of being dredged again by the early 1990’s.  In 2009, the estimated amount of sediment in the reservoir is 12,000 cubic yards.  The soft sediment poses safety and aesthetic concerns.  The impoundment also negatively alters water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity (relative clarity).  The resultant water quality and physical barrier of the dam negatively impact the diversity, quantity and quality of fish and macroinvertebrates in the stream.