HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — We have shown you the nasty visuals of smelly muck taking over what used to be waterfront dream property. Now, Macomb County leaders have announced the county-approved funding to partner with the Army Corps of Engineers to figure out what is causing it along pockets of the Lake St. Clair shoreline.
Scientists have blamed lyngbya, a mat-forming alga, but they don’t understand why it is suddenly here and forming with such destructive growth.
The county and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will each contribute $200,000 to studying for two years whether the muck poses health risks, what is driving its grow and how it can be managed.
“We need to understand what is causing it, what its makeup is and are there preventive steps and maintenance steps to eradicate it or to maintain and live with it. Something has changed in the lake’s ecosystem in the last 10 years. Is it because of zebra mussels, combined sewer overflows, climate change?” said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice S. Miller, a member of the drainage board that approved the grant agreement with USACE.
The Macomb County Public Works Office reached out to USACE last year to propose that federal officials consider the Planning Assistance to States grant program to fund a study.
“We’re not sure what is causing it, what it is comprised of, whether it is toxic or not,” Miller said.
The muck has impacted public access to the water. The state of Michigan Department of Natural Resources Spillway boat launch facility in Harrison Township is completing a several million dollar upgrade, because Lyngbya has been choking off the boat launch area for many years and the cost and effort of dredging out the muck became cost prohibitive and significantly shortened the seasonal availability of the boat launch.
The study will involve:
- Field sampling of lyngbya
- Identifying lyngbya hot spots and conditions that drive its spread
- Collaboration with researchers to develop knowledge and practices to better understand the ecological and human health risks
- Creation of a management plan to better understand, predict, react to and manage lyngbya on the lake.
Officials are concerned that E. coli or other bacteria and substances snared by the mats pose a threat to public health.
“Macomb County is always focused on how we can improve our water quality in Lake St. Clair. We look forward to the results of this study, so we can develop an action plan in dealing with this noxious muck,” Miller said.
“It is taking over our lake. It is taking over our lives. It is changing things. We just can’t have that,” said Barbara Zinner, a county commissioner.
“It is nice to know they are doing something about this now. It has been an eyesore. It has been a pain,” said Jacob Greenway, who lives near the muck.
Greenway says he can no longer use his dad’s boat slip to access the lake. It is filled with muck. He hopes after the study there is help with restoration.
