  French777 Member Username: French777 Post Number: 196 Registered: 10-2006 |
is the Detroit River cleaner than 10 years ago or little as 5 years ago?? | ||
Kid_dynamite Member Username: Kid_dynamite Post Number: 173 Registered: 06-2007 |
I read that just recently Whitefish have been breeding in it, and they require very clean water to do so. I read that it is the cleanest it has been in over 100 years. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 2564 Registered: 06-2004 |
Probably, other than fecal contamination from upstream. They found some fish laying eggs there again that hadn't for decades, and I've seen fishflies downtown these last two years, something I've never seen before. | ||
Scs100 Member Username: Scs100 Post Number: 1351 Registered: 12-2006 |
The fishflies have evolved into two separate species owing to the water in Lake St. Claire and the Detroit River being cleaner than they have in at least 10-15 years. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3474 Registered: 02-2005 |
It's clean; mostly this is due to upstream pollution being cut down (i.e. more new sewer systems that keep sewage out of the lakes). The level of pollution realized downtown depends on what goes in the water up north; the only area of heavy industry to our north is along the St. Clair river, mainly on the Canada side. I'm interested to know if the water downriver/lake Erie is cleaner (i.e. from less pollution entering the Rouge.) | ||
Pythonmaster Member Username: Pythonmaster Post Number: 79 Registered: 12-2006 |
Is the beach at Belle Isle open? It seems almost deserted on hot days but in years past there were always people there. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3478 Registered: 02-2005 |
It is. | ||
Noggin Member Username: Noggin Post Number: 100 Registered: 09-2004 |
The new Detroit Conner Creek sewage plant has been on line for a couple of years. Conner Creek does not even stink anymore. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 1053 Registered: 12-2005 |
The Connor Creek plant is a recently-refurbished pumping station for storm water, not a sewage plant. An on-line booklet titled Detroit Water and Sewage Department - the First 300 Years recounts the history of the department. Just to give you a feel of how much better the water quality is now, read the following quote from that document: And a Detroit Free Press story from August 1, 1908, decried: "Wyandotte's drinking water is polluted by the sewage of Detroit, according to an analysis made by the state board of health." One test sample found "42,000 bacilli to the cubic centimeter…" Compared to today [2003], a fecal coliform count of only 300 in the same volume of water will result in beach closings. Below is a high-altitude aerial photo of the Detroit area showing just how bad the pollution in the Detroit River was back in 1930. The dark bands of water closest to the shore are highly polluted. This photo was originally taken by the Detroit News and it appears on page 14 of the linked document above.  | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4046 Registered: 10-2003 |
"Is the beach at Belle Isle open? It seems almost deserted on hot days but in years past there were always people there." Most definitely. I swam there just last Friday, a nice refreshing cool-off after handball in 90 degree weather, and have done several times this year. The water is clear, clearer than ever. Zebra mussels have helped but the quick moving current also helps along with the slow but sure implementation of anti-pollution requirements. The beach is groomed every day and the layer of new sand added years has the beach in the best condition in all the decades I have had the pleasure to use it. About the only drawback is that the grass apron is scorched, not unusual for August. Here it is from Friday:  Come on down the water's great and the view can't be beat. | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1877 Registered: 11-2003 |
A Grosse Pointe resident attempted a swim from GP to Grosse Ile a few days ago, but had to give up the ghost below the Ambassador Bridge because of the strong current. Will Lowell be the next to give it a try? | ||
Pythonmaster Member Username: Pythonmaster Post Number: 81 Registered: 12-2006 |
I found this very interesting: http://www.modeldmedia.com/fea tures/riverkeeper49.aspx | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 208 Registered: 02-2007 |
Lowell, thats a nice picture. Swim down the Detroit river? That river is dangerous in places. No place to be swimming. | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 844 Registered: 02-2007 |
brought a friend with me to the ilse two years ago and had such an enjoyable summer day...the beach,fountain and in general the park...I am so glad to know all the progress...that is such a treasure. She never had been to Detroit and was very impressed with Belle Isle...and the river in general... | ||
Michigan Member Username: Michigan Post Number: 899 Registered: 04-2007 |
I hope people realize how special Belle Isle is and how great the access to the water is. Most cities can not hold a candle to it. | ||
Dds Member Username: Dds Post Number: 307 Registered: 10-2006 |
quote: A common misapprehension. In the end, Zebra Mussels filtering the water is more of a harm. Aquatic Nuisance Species quote: | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 511 Registered: 08-2006 |
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20070801/M ETRO/708010364 A lot has been done to the sewers to reduce sewage entering the water and it seems to have worked. Lake Saint CLair is clearer than ever this year but as mentioned above there is a lot of seaweed to this year. | ||
Gmich99 Member Username: Gmich99 Post Number: 220 Registered: 11-2005 |
Lowell- perfect picture. I can't help but wonder if the decline of industry hasn't helped the water. We're not exactly at the birth of the industrial age in Michigan. We're much closer to the death of the industrial age. We need only look at China today to see the pollution of the 1930s. I'm a bit afraid, but could that also mean that China will see our standard of living at the expense of Detroit jobs? I don't think that is even a real question at this point. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1370 Registered: 10-2006 |
Hopefully they will have learned from our mistakes... | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 2570 Registered: 06-2004 |
the water off the beach at Belle Isle is fine, just don't go out too far where the current is faster and avoid yahoos on jet-skis | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 210 Registered: 02-2007 |
Quote: "Hopefully they will have learned from our mistakes..." They haven't.. China has an equally bad or worse pollution problem as we encountered here, already. Some of the rivers are so toxic in places it will kill cattle almost instantly. No EPA, No Osha type monitoring. Companies can basically do whatever they want. Further advantage costwise over our manufacturing techniques. The Detroit river was really bad through the 60's. We used to take boats down there and after pulling them back out of the water they had a black ring around them. It would not come off without some labor. To see it then and to see it now, the difference is drastic. The Rouge river was just a cesspool before the Army corp came in and fixed it. Imagine a wide muddy waterway with no vegetation on the shore, water was opaque reddish brown and scrap iron and garbage sticking up out of it everywhere. It was terrible. Oh yes and a continual iridescent oilslick. It had to be the filthiest river in the United states. Lots of jokes about the Rouge river back then. There is no doubt the reduced industry here has contributed to the improvement in the ecology. I also remember there was a red saucer shaped cloud that used to hang over the whole city when the winds were light. Especially on the weekends when EPA wasn't working. It's cleaned up a lot here. I remember vividly in the latter part of the 70's right after the completion of the RenCen, topping the Rouge bridge on I-75 on a still morning, and I could barely see the new structure. The pollution or smog was that thick. Strangely, it's just the way things were. Very few seemed to mind. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 2572 Registered: 06-2004 |
"Lots of jokes about the Rouge river back then" at least it didn't catch fire (Cuyahoga) and the Charles in Boston isn't great either. I remember wading in boats there and your legs would be sticky when you got out of the water. It was gross.  (Message edited by lilpup on August 06, 2007) | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 211 Registered: 02-2007 |
One of the most interesting happenings when they were redoing the Rouge was near the Miller bridge in Dearborn. They found a car in the sludge. It was a 36 Dodge or Chevrolet (cant remember) and it had 3 skeletons in it. Or the remains of 3 individuals. Turned out there were a man and two women that went missing back in the late 30's after leaving a bar in Melvindale. The paper at that time dubbed them the "Melvindale 3". They were never found and it was an unsolved mystery what ever became of them. Apparently they drove off one of the bridges in the area in the middle of the night and landed in the river, couldnt get out of the car and drowned. They sat sealed in a watery tomb for over 40 years. The rouge was so nasty, no one was going to happen upon them and water so murky, they couldnt be seen. Anyone remember this story? (Message edited by sstashmoo on August 06, 2007) | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 567 Registered: 08-2006 |
Bump^^^^interesting. I heard that a guy died in the seventies after he was drunk and drove in the rouge and his passenger ended up gulping down some Rouge water and died a little bit later. Urban Legend? | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 331 Registered: 02-2007 |
I don't recall that one. That doesn't mean it didnt happen though. Back then it seemed as there was always something crazy happening. There were more people and just about everyone drank and drove, myself included. Of course back then if we got caught, they'd just say get home and be careful. I remember one incident in particular in the wintertime. A car near one of the interchanges on a service drive drove into a pole and the guy was passed out on the steering wheel. And apparently when the car hit the pole it pulled the accelerator wide open or he was passed out with his foot on it, anyway, the car was doing like a pinwheel on the pole going around and around. We watched it for like 5 minutes until we heard the cops coming. Quite a sight. I remember when that propane truck came off the 94 west to I-75 south exit ramp and landed right in I-94 and exploded (around 78 or 79). That was a huge mess, flames like 200 feet high. I missed seeing it by two minutes. The driver survived if I'm not mistaken. It blew the cab up the embankment and protected him from the flames. I may be wrong about that though. It was weird in that period, tanker trucks hauling fuel were blowing up and flipping over all over the city in like a two year period. Back to the question  Nope, never heard about it. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5245 Registered: 08-2004 |
Fareastsider... not an urban legend. I saw it in either the Freep or News. Sstashmoo, the air quality is soooo bad in Beijing that next years Olympics will be affected by athletes breathing all the pollutants. Now Beijing has started odd/even days of driving (based on your license plate). But it appears to be too little too late. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 1755 Registered: 02-2007 |
trying to find a reference to the melvindale 3 on google | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 83 Registered: 06-2007 |
how many on here swim in the Detroit River? that Belle Isle beach looks great! is there still a lot of crime on Belle Isle like there used to be back in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up on the far east side? as kids we were absolutely prohibited from sticking even a little toe in that river. I wonder if good old Lakewood Park still has those big chunks of concrete along the river "bank?" anyone? hey, I'm really glad to hear that the river is clean, that's great! and the air, too! it may go to show that there's still hope for us all, don't you think? I developed asthma in my 40s, and I have wondered if it's because I grew up inhaling all that dirty air in Detroit, before the EPA came along, like Sstashmoo said. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2137 Registered: 10-2003 |
Influx from the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant in Delray is actually cleaner than the water that enters the Water Works Park treatment plant upstream. | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 301 Registered: 02-2007 |
Don't know about someone dying from drinking Detroit River water, but I remember press around a guy dying who fell into the Rouge in Redford while collecting golf balls. | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 84 Registered: 06-2007 |
thanks, Python, for that wonderful article. I would love to ride along with that River Doctor and have a long chat...thanks again... | ||
Unclefrank Member Username: Unclefrank Post Number: 85 Registered: 03-2006 |
I remember the story about the who died after falling in the River. He passed from some condition called "Rat Fever." I would love to read the story about the 1930's car with bodies found in the river. Can't find it on the web. | ||
Pete Member Username: Pete Post Number: 90 Registered: 10-2003 |
A couple of corrections: First for MikeG - Not to be confused with the Connor Creek Pumping Station, there is now a Connor Creek CSO basin built to handle combined sewer overflow (CSO) during a storms. In older cities and suburbs, the sewage system was usually combined with the storm sewer system, and during storms it was designed that this sewage/stormwater mix would overflow at relief points to streams and rivers. The solution of a CSO basin creates storage for this diluted sewage during small storms, and 'primary' treatment during larger storms. So, it's sort of a quasi-treatment facility. Actual sewage treatment plants are required to provide at least 'secondary' treatment, and perhaps 'tertiary' treatment. The Connor Creek CSO basin was a much needed improvement because even the smallest amounts of rain used to cause sewage overflows to the river. The same was true of outfalls at the foot of St. Aubin and Bates, I believe (I could be wrong on the streets). Small CSO treatment facilities were also constructed there in the last 5-10 years, although with much less storage than at the Connor Creek facility. For Fury13 - Your statement about the effluent from the DWSD wastewater treatment plant being cleaner than the influent to Waterworks Park is extremely debatable. During rainstorms, there is no way that is the case, because the excess water from combined sewers in the system causes capacity issues and DWSD is allowed to release effluent from the plant that has only achieved primary treatment. Additionally, the wastewater treatment plant is still under a federal consent order that has been in place since the 1970's due to non-compliance issues (Judge Feikens oversees this). Under normal conditions, the effluent from the treatment plant is of very good quality, though, but I would need to see data to agree with you statement. As far as the quality of the influent to Waterworks Park, though, it really doesn't matter. The plant at Waterworks Park was completely rebuilt and modernized only a few years ago and produces some of the cleanest and best tasting drinking water in the world (as does the other Detroit water plants). There is definitely no need to purchase bottled water if you get your water from DWSD. | ||
Titancub Member Username: Titancub Post Number: 76 Registered: 08-2006 |
China is absolutely destroying their environment and poisoning their own people - its beyond tragic. The headlines involve smog in the major cities, the most appalling is what's happening inland with the poorer and more up and coming cities/villages. | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 234 Registered: 10-2006 |
Didn`t the Rouge catch fire once in the sixties or seventies? | ||
Scs100 Member Username: Scs100 Post Number: 1464 Registered: 12-2006 |
No, that was the Cuyahoga River. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5255 Registered: 08-2004 |
Titanclub... China is also poisoning us and and our pets as well... | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 235 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Cuyahoga, Baltimore Harbor, Buffalo River in upstate New York and the Rouge River in Michigan according to the website of the Case Western Reserve University, just looked it up though they didn`t offer pictures or dates. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 9956 Registered: 12-2003 |
When I was a young punk, my sister was in the Brownies in Rouge Park or Hines Dr. and a girl fell into the Rouge River. They had to call an ambulance and everything, but I don't know whatever happened to her. We were clearly warned against threat of death to stay away from the Rouge River, but we played at the park all the time. Knowing what I do now about toxins and permeability of environs, I'm certain we all ingested copious quantities of whatever flowed down that 'river'...in the ground, air, even contact with our animals. Yuck. | ||
Supersport Member Username: Supersport Post Number: 11670 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: We had the luxury of enjoying Detroit from the water last night. We joined some friends on their boat and dropped anchor just off Belle Isle Beach. I am happy to report that all the rain we've had over the past few weeks has the island looking greener than ever, and the scorched grass apron is now gone. | ||
River_rat Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 282 Registered: 02-2006 |
Zebra mussels do clarify the water of the Detroit Straits and Lake Ste. Claire. If you are a boater, you can see down 15 feet in the lake when the sun angle is best and see some huge boulders deposited on the lake bottom by the last glaciers. And the swimming is great. | ||
Vetalalumni Member Username: Vetalalumni Post Number: 647 Registered: 05-2007 |
I enjoyed swimming at the Belle Isle beach from about about 1977 to 1983. I met a girlfriend there. The beach was not pristine, but it was far from filthy. I never had a bad incident anywhere on Belle Isle during my 100s of visits there. | ||
Ahartz Member Username: Ahartz Post Number: 8 Registered: 04-2007 |
great chat. The Conner creek CSO upgrade that was built over the last 3 years has greatly improved the water quality on the river. This was the States second largest CSO discharge point. Behind Pt. Hurons' I am told. The building in Connor Creek "took" about 1 acre of the creek. DWSD created the large wetland/pond at Maheras Park in exchange for this permenant take of public trust waters. The water of the River is usually great, exceptions are post rain storm, great discussion of this from Pete above. However the sediments are another story. The upper river sediments are nothing like the lower river. from Zug island down you can imagine!! Two recent projects have taken some of the worst sediments from the river. The Black Lagoon project in Trenton, huge EPA/DEQ dredging project hat took 30,000 + cubic yards of nasty sediment out and the clean up at the BASF/Riverview site, just upstream from the Grosse Ile PAY bridge have removed some of the worst sediments in the river. There are alot of groups "speaking" for the river, friends of the Detroit river, the Riverkeeper, Bob Burns, but so much of that effort seems to taker place downriver...is there a group that is focused on the upper river???.....andy |
