Muskegon Lake

From Great Lakes Wiki

Background

Muskegon Lake is a 4,149 acre Area of Concern located in Muskegon County, Michigan. The lake drains into Lake Michigan through the Muskegon river, and became an AoC in 1985 when it was recognized that pollutants dumped in the lake were making their way into Lake Michigan. The lake and its tributaries have been home to many industrial factories in the past, including chemical and petrochemical companies, foundries and a paper mill. It is also home to Ruddiman Creek, which has undergone a $10.6 million clean-up project that has removed almost 100,000 cubic meters of contaminated sediments from the bottom of the creek.

</googlemap><googlemap lat="43.235949" lon="-86.260357" type="map" zoom="15" scale="yes" overview="yes"> 43.233885, -86.263146, Annis Water Resources Institute 740 W Shoreline Drive, Muskegon </googlemap>

Part 1 of Kathy Evans presentation at 'Getting the Message Out on Great Lakes Restoration', a weekend conference in Whitehall, Mich on Nov. 8, 2007. The conference focused on communication aspects of environmental activism, and Mrs. Evans was able to elaborate on the difficulties of gaining support from local communities in Muskegon Lake.

Timeline of recent Muskegon Lake events.

• 2002: Muskegon Lake Community Action Plan (RAP update) completed.

This update to the Muskegon Lake RAP established a restoration vision and a set of community-based qualitative restoration targets for restoration efforts. Over the winter of 2003-2004, the PAC developed a project to involve stakeholders in the development of numerical restoration targets for fish and wildlife, water quality and related natural resource issues.

• 1994: Muskegon Lake Remedial Action Plan Update completed. This document achieved five objectives:

Ensuring participation in the process by a public advisory council as well as a team of specialists from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources; Documenting water quality data collected and analyzed since the plan was published in 1987; Analyzing the current status of AoC use impairments; Making recommendations that if carried out will lay the foundation for the next phase of the process, implementing specific measures to remediate the water quality problems of the AoC; and Identification of data and information gaps.

• 1993: Muskegon Lake PAC established. The Muskegon Lake Public Advisory Council (PAC) is a coalition of community interests dedicated to working cooperatively for the improvement of the Muskegon Lake ecosystem through the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) process.
• 1987: Muskegon Lake Remedial Action Plan completed.

This Status Report is an update of progress made by the State of Michigan to address the problems in the Muskegon Lake Area of Concern (AoC) identified by the International Joint Commission as one of Michigan's fourteen Areas of Concern.

Beneficial Use Impairments(BUIs)

Most bodies of water have certain uses to any community, including fishing, recreation, boating and natural beauty. Beneficial Use Impairments are changes in the physical or chemical makeup of a body of water that negatively effect these benefits.

[edit] Muskegon Lake BUIs Beach Closings Restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption Eutrophication or undesirable algae Restrictions on drinking water consumption, or taste and odor Degradation of fish and wildlife populations Degradation of aesthetics Degradation of benthos Restriction on dredging activities Loss of fish and wildlife habitat

Part 2 of Kathy Evan's presentation.

Getting the Message Out on Great Lakes Restoration

- Muskegon River Watershed Assembly

- EPA Muskegon Lake AOC

- Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership