We respond to reports of standing, pooling, and flowing water in city streets, alleys, sidewalks, driveways, and in basements. To report a concern, please call Engage Toledo at 419-936-2020 or submit online.

Report a water concern

Before you call

  1. If there is water in your basement, review our guide to basement flooding for help with cleanup.
  2. If there is standing water in the street, check to ensure surrounding inlets aren't blocked. These can frequently clog with leaves during the fall and prevent water from draining.
  3. Take note of whether the water is clean or dirty/smelly. This information helps call takers determine if the problem is related to a water main or sewer line.
  4. While you can report issues immediately, if the concern is on your property or in your home, we recommend also calling a plumber to assess the situation. Cleaning and clearing of blockages of building sewers is the property owner's responsibility from the premise to the main sewer per Toledo Municipal Code. The city is responsible only to fix issues in the public right of way or sewer easement.

About the Process

Create request

To get started, report the concern to Engage Toledo. To make a full report, we'll need:

  1. The address of the location in question
  2. A description of the issue
  3. Potential cause of the concern (heavy rain, sewer backup, etc.)
  4. If the water is clean or dirty/smelly
  5. If the water is standing, flowing, dripping, or bubbling
  6. Name of plumber, if contacted
  7. Frequency of issue, if recurring
  8. Additional information (optional)
  9. Photo of the problem (optional)

Request acknowledged

Once the request is acknowledged, an inspector will be scheduled to investigate the pothole. Depending on the severity of the issue, it may take up to 24 hours for an investigator to respond. If you provided an email address when reporting the concern, you will receive an email at this step letting you know the request was acknowledged.

Request investigated

After the investigation is completed, the inspector will either:

  1. determine there is no issue, or the issue is not within the public right of way. This request is now complete.
  2. create a work order to address the problem discovered.
  3. place the alley or street in question on a list for future repair as needed.

If you provided an email address when reporting the concern, you will receive a final email at this step letting you know the outcome of the investigation.

Work order created

If more work is required, the city will respond as quickly as possible. After heavy rain events, response times may be delayed due to a high volume of service requests.

Once the work order is created, the service request will appear closed in the Engage Toledo portal. This does not mean that the problem has been resolved. If you would like updates on progress, please call Engage Toledo at 419-936-2020. Creating a second request for the same issue will not make the process go faster, and the duplicate request will be closed if it is already in our system.