Why is Kansas City draining Brush Creek? What to know about the ongoing cleanup project
Kansas City crews are draining parts of Brush Creek to inspect a dam near Chelsea Avenue on Kansas City’s East Side.
KC Water spokesperson Jackson Overstreet said that city crews are draining a wide area of the creek known as the Lake of the Enshriners, the majority of which is found between Cleveland Avenue and Elmwood Avenue, to inspect the dam.
“Crews are accomplishing the drain by pumping water over the dam to the downstream channel,” he wrote in an email. “The draining is weather dependent but should be down completely by the end of the week. Dam inspections will go on this week to assess any needed repairs.”
City manager Brian Platt shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, that two cars were found in the lakebed on Thursday, Dec. 5.
“Our Parks Dept is draining Brush Creek to better clean and restore the entire area. Found not one but two cars today alone!” Platt posted.
Overstreet added that crews have also found around 50 shopping carts in the lakebed. Once the inspections and any needed repairs on the dam are complete, he said, the lake “will gradually fill back up over time as it rains.”
Brush Creek originates as a series of streams and drainage channels in Mission Hills, Kansas, and flows east along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard until it reaches the Blue River on Kansas City’s East Side.
The creek has been a site of controversy for years due to its litter-clogged water, mass dieoffs of fish and a perceived incongruity between its water quality east of a dam at the Paseo and that to the west, where the creek runs along the southern edge of the Country Club Plaza.
Firefighters found a body floating in the creek in July 2024, and a man in a wheelchair was found dead in the creek in the fall of 2018. It has also been the site of several fatal car crashes.
Dallas-based developers HP Village Partners, which recently purchased The Country Club Plaza, have expressed a desire to reactivate the aerating fountains in the western portion of the creek.
Meanwhile, a 2023 master plan from KC Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers details potential redevelopments to the eastern part of the creek to make it a more attractive public destination. The proposal includes a skate park, an amphitheater, a wetland boardwalk, pedestrian bridges and several multi-use fields among other attractions.
Community preferences incorporated into the 2023 plan included removing dams and improving water quality in Brush Creek. However, the plan is just a visionary document — it doesn’t include funding or a construction timeline.
Do you have more questions about public works in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
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