The River Raisin at Monroe is among nine contaminated river mouths and harbors that will be targeted for accelerated clean-up next year under an Obama administration program to deal with festering problems in the Great Lakes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson said Wednesday during a visit to Detroit.
"We're laying the groundwork for places like White Lake and River Raisin right here in Michigan, Sheboygan River and Harbor in Wisconsin, and Ashtabula River in Ohio — all of which will ultimately be taken off the cleanup list," Ms. Jackson said during a Great Lakes conference at Wayne State University.
With long-term funding prospects uncertain as Congress struggles to reduce the budget deficit, Ms. Jackson said the government will reorder its spending priorities for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, for which $775 million has been spent during the past two years.
The River Raisin near the Port of Monroe was among 43 heavily polluted "areas of concern" designated in the Great Lakes region in 1987, largely because the river bottom was laden with PCBs, a now-banned cancer-causing fire retardant. Since then only a handful of those areas have been taken off the list.
Using federal funds, plans have been mapped to dredge about 100,000 cubic yards of tainted sediment from the river next summer. In August, about 58,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment was dredged along a 1,200-foot stretch of the river, from the turning basin at the port to the channel near DTE Energy's Monroe Power Plant.
Monroe County Drain Commissioner Daniel Stefanski, who serves on a citizen advisory committee on the clean-up plan, said the EPA has indicated the Raisin project remains on tap. "I am hopeful that it will happen. However, time will tell, so I won't hold my breath," he said. "It has been over 20 years."
The aim of the clean-up efforts is to remove the industrial chemical from the riverbed, reducing the chances tit will end up in fish that anglers will eat.
In addition to fast-tracking work on heavily polluted sites, government agencies will redouble efforts to combat invasive species and devote greater attention to three major watersheds choked with algae blooms caused by excessive phosphorus runoff, Ms. Jackson said.
The Maumee River watershed, which flows into Lake Erie, is one of the watersheds targeted.
for the phosphorus reduction efforts. The nutrients from industries, homes and farms are blamed for the massive algae blooms, which still blot the lake and near-shore areas.