Billions of dollars are sunk into boring miles of tunnels while above ground communities in the Cuyahoga watershed allow leaf blowers, lawns, free curbside pick up of organics and building w/o storm water retention....doesn't make any sense.

The first place to "store" precipitation should be in the duff - the naturally occuring organic layer on top of inorganic soil.

While NEO landowners are taxed for billions of dollars to build and maintain underground tunnel surge chambers to store stormwater and keep our sewer treatment plants from being overwhelmed during precipitation events - at the same time NEO landowners are simultaneously taxed/hire "landscapers"  to have their yards sterilized of water absorbing leaf "litter".

Consider that in a wooded area which has not been disturbed for, say, 100 years the 6 to 12 inch deep accummulation of organic duff can hold 7 inches of rain falling over 24 hrs without any run off. 

Here is a pdf study of rainfall held by duff or you can just get a mole for a billion.

In Seattle they also mole - is Seattle's bore for water supply or stormwater detention?