Drainage area: 294 square miles with headwaters mostly in Medina County.

Stream miles: 664 miles, including tributaries

Branches: East and West branches flow together near Cedar Point Road to form the river's mainstem 12 miles from Lake Erie

Major tributary creeks: Plum, Blodgett, Baldwin, Abram, Baker, Mallet, Healey.

Drinking water: Source of drinking water for Berea and Medina.

Ohio EPA water quality designations: Entire basin is Warmwater Habitat (capable of supporting a balanced and relatively diverse community of warmwater aquatic organisms), last six miles of the mainstem are Seasonal Salmonid (capable of supporting seasonal passage of salmonid species, such as trout, and large enough to support recreational fishing).

Best water quality: upper East Branch

Major wastewater treatment plants discharding to watershed: North Royalton A and B, Medina 300 and 500, Strongsville B and C, North Olmsted, Columbia Township Subdivision, Columbia Mobile Home Park, Olmstead Trailer Park, Brentwood Subdivision, Vinewood Subdivision.

Significant problems: organic enrichment from sewage and runoff, metals, ammonia, habitat alteration.

Valley as western limit of plant range: sessile trillium, white adder's tongue, giant Solomon's seal.

Ecoregion: According to Ohio EPA's classification, the Rocky River Basin is located in the Erie/Ontario Lake Plain ecoregion, which is characterized by glacial plains interspersed with higher remnant beach ridges, drumlins, glacial till ridges, till plains, and outwash terraces. Local relief is greater in the Erie/Ontario Lake Plain ecoregion (Northeast Ohio) than in the neighboring Huron/Erie Lake Plain (Northwest Ohio) ecoregions, but less than the relief found in the Western Allegheny Plateau (Southeast Ohio ecoregion).

Sources: Ohio EPA, NOACA, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

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EcoCity Cleveland
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Cuyahoga Bioregion
(216) 961-5020
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