Can They Legally Flood My Property To Protect A Public Park? Floodplain Dispute.

So I’ve got about 10.4 acres, and two sides of my property share a fence line with a public metro park. The place is old 1800s farmhouse and the original owners left behind a bunch of old photos. In those pictures (from the 70s), the back six acres were completely flat. Now, there’s this deep central erosion channel from flooding, about an 8–10 ft drop across the property.

The park next to me has a really nice walking and biking trail that’s used constantly. There’s a big creek that runs beside it, and whenever it even lightly rains, the creek floods. To protect the trail and parking lot, they’ve built a collection overflow system that funnels the water into a massive culvert probably 3–4 ft in diameter. The problem is, that culvert ends maybe two feet from my property line, pointing directly at my land. When it rains, it just blasts water onto my property. Judging by the erosion, it’s probably been doing that for over a decade.

A family friend who does drainage work for large construction projects told me this definitely shouldn’t be happening and that I should reach out to local agriculture and engineering authorities. I did and the director of agriculture is actually coming out to take a look. But over the phone, they told me that drainage laws here are “archaic” and that as long as the park is directing water from one floodplain to another floodplain, it doesn’t matter if it crosses onto a different property.

That sounds insane to me. How is that even legal? They’re basically protecting the park and trail by flooding my land. Has anyone dealt with something like this before or know if that interpretation holds up? Location: Canal Winchester Ohio