Rouge River Past

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Taken at the Rouge River Clean Up (www.ci.novi.mi.us)

The Rouge has long been a dumping ground for just about everything from washing machines, old cars, dead bodies, and toxic outflows from factories and sewage plants. It is the pathetic story of a long history of total disregard of planning, complete lack of environmental awareness, and poor leadership. In the 1960's, the Rouge River was one of three rivers in the U.S. to actually catch on fire due to the large amount of oil on its surface. In the 1980s The International Joint Commission declared the Rouge one of the dirtiest rivers in the Midwest. As the point-source pollution sites were being cleaned up, the continued pollution was pointing to non-point source pollution. But, in a hopeful turn around, a happy ending is in sight. The Rouge River cleanup has become an intense and focused effort at all levels: government, business and citizen.

Improvement began in 1987, when the Rouge River, along with 42 other sites near the Great Lakes, was deemed an Area of Concern by the US-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Each of these areas was required to come up with a Remedial Action Plan (RAP). These outlined the major issues that were causing the pollution, as well as set forth a plan for resolving them. The Department of Environmental Quality is then responsible for implementing these plans.

Rouge's RAP

The Ford Motor Company Rouge River Plant in 1927. (from www.nga.gov)

With the Ford Motor Company Rouge River Plant and other factories located on the banks of the Rouge, previous pollution problems had been attributed to industry. However, with 50% of the nearby land being residential, the RAP revealed that non-point source pollution was now becoming a larger threat to the river. This includes combined sewer output, storm water discharge, illicit and illegal discharges, flooding and bank erosion. With people continuing to spread to previously rural land, more and more concrete covers the ground. This concrete, instead of soaking up the rain water, drains fetilizers, pesticides, oil and excess water into sewers which overflow into the nearby rivers. Also, many people dump chemicals, lawn treatments, and car washing soaps down storm drains, thinking they lead to treatments plants. Unfortunately, anything that goes down a storm drain is actually fed directly into the river.

Picture from www.nsw.gov

Since the RAP implementation in 1989, the Rouge River had drastically changed for the better. To date, 314,000 cubic meters of contaminated sediment has been remediated and over 11 million dollars spent. The Rouge River RAP was updated in 2004 and showed improved water quality and over all ecosystem health. A table of delisting targets from the International Joint Commission summarizes the Rouge River's progress.

Problems Remain

A duck covered in oil from the 2002 Rouge/Detroit River oil spill. (from www.epa.gov)

Problems still remain however. On April 9th, 2002, 250,000 gallons of oil were spilled into a 13-mile stretch of the Detroit River near the mouth of the Rouge River. Only 70,000 of these gallons were recovered. Although oil is generally lighter than water, changes in temperature and water current can cause the oil to sink and settle on the bottom. This leftover oil can cause harm to numerous animals that come in contact with the water. In a June article after the spill, a statement by Comprehensive Environmental Solutions "denied any wrongdoing and said it was cooperating fully with the FBI and EPA." The Rouge River is also still having problems with sewage control and combined sewer output.
More news articles about the Rouge.

Timeline

• 1791 - King George III ordered a Survey of Upper Canada. The land around the Rouge River became available for settlement.
• 1800's - Lumber and gristmills sprang up along the Rouge. The Rouge River became a handy logging highway, and it's water polluted.
• 1900's - When the logging stopped, because all the usable trees were cut, the Rouge River was left for development and over time became incredibly polluted.
• 1960's - The Rouge River is one of three rivers in the Midwest to actually catch on fire due to the large amount of oil on its surface.
• 1983 - The Detroit Sewage Plant spent six years and $500 million dollars to fix pollution problems.
• 1986 - 30,000 cubic meters of zinc contaminated sediment was removed from the Lower Branch of the Rouge River by mechanical dredging.
• 1987 – The International Joint Commission designated the Rouge River as one of the 43 most polluted areas in the Great Lakes. These as called Areas of Concern.
• 1989 – A Remedial Action Plan (RAP) was designed for the river, and set high standards for other RAP's.
• 1991 – Local communities urge the U.S. district court to design a process for cleaning up the combined sewer overflows into the Rouge.
• 1992 – Wayne county receivers the first EPA grant for the Rouge Project.
• 1994 – A group of local communities near the Rouge River watershed propose a new approach to control storm water discharges.
• 1997-1998 - Wayne County removed approximately 306,000 cubic meters of PCB contaminated sediment from an impoundment (Newburgh Lake) in the Upper Rouge River and placed it in a secure landfill.
• April 1997 - 7,300 cubic meters of PBC contaminated sediment was removed from the source area to Newburgh Lake (Evans Products Ditch Site) April 1997, approximately 7,300 m3 of PCB contaminated stream sediment were removed and transported for disposal at a landfill in Michigan and a hazardous waste disposal facility in New York.
• 1997 – The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality adopted the unique watershed approach to storm water management developed and proposed by local agencies participating in the Rouge Project that would subsequently become a statewide alternative for meeting Phase II federal storm water discharge requirements
• 2003 – The Rouge River Watershed Local Management Assembly is established consisting of thirty-eight cities, townships and villages and three counties within the Rouge River watershed.
• 2004 - The Rouge River RAP was updated and showed a significant improvement in oxygen levels and decreased bacteria count.
• 2006 – The Alliance of Rouge Communities was formed under the new state laws and held its first meeting in January

Related Pages

Rouge River
Areas of Concern
Rouge River Pictures