Federal and state environmental agencies announced the next phase of cleanup efforts for parts of the Detroit and Rouge rivers where polluted sediment has caused environmental degradation.
These so-called “areas of concern” are specific segments of the Great Lakes Basin where industrial waste and urban runoff has caused high levels of pollution. The designation came through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in the 1980s.
Sam Noffke is an aquatic biologist with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). He says EGLE will join the Environmental Protection Agency in developing a design to dredge or contain the pollution, but it'll take a few years to finish the work.
"A lot of these areas that are current areas of concern like the Detroit [River] area, historically heavily industrialized areas and there’s lots of contamination,” said Noffke, “So addressing that takes a lot of time to characterize those sediments and a lot of funding in the process."
The next phase of that process was launched for two additional sites this week.
The Environmental Protection Agency will work with EGLE to develop cleanup plans for shorelines in the Harbortown area, before working with funding partners to carry them out.
Officials also highlighted an effort that’s much further along. In the Lower Rouge River’s Old Channel, more than 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment was removed through a cost-sharing partnership between the EPA and the multinational corporation, Honeywell International.
The clean up effort requires significant data collection and an extended designing process since different sites may require different mitigation measures, said Anne Vogel, an EPA regional director.
"The Detroit River Area of Concern, for example, we're talking about dredging these areas and actually removing the contamination,” she said. “In some Areas of Concern, we're able to cap the contaminated sediment to keep it in place [while also keeping] it from affecting the water quality."
It’s a massive undertaking, but the results are also meaningful.
“What you see over time is nature healing itself. The fish return, and the bugs return to their natural state,” Vogel said.
The mitigation effort can make it safe to eat fish caught in different parts of the river, for example, or restrictions on boating might be lifted.
Once the pollution has been cleared enough for the Area of Concern to have the same markers of health as other parts of the river, the site is “de-listed.”
Of the 14 sites designated as Areas of Concern in Michigan, four have been cleaned up and taken off the list.
