Muskegon Lake cleanup expected to generate serious ROI

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

With the flurry of development in downtown Muskegon and proposals for future casinos and hotels along Muskegon Lake, the city could reap huge financial returns for the cleanup of the lake, one of the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC). In May, the Great Lakes Task Force introduced an extension to the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 (S.2994), proposing increased funding for cleanup from $54 million annually to $150 million. But will any of that money come to Muskegon?

“The government hasn’t ever fully funded the original $54 million annually, but only appropriated between $10 and $20 million,” says Al Steinman, PhD, GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute. “An initial cleanup, which involved Ruddiman Creek, cost $12 million in 2005.”

Recent research shows that a $20 billion proposal to restore the Great Lakes, which would include enhancing wetlands, fixing outdated sewers, and cleaning up all of the 26 AOCs in U.S. waters, could generate as much as $80 billion in increased economic activity, Steinman says. The cleanup also would create tens of thousands of jobs. Increased development could create even more. It stands to reason that Muskegon could reap significant benefits from Great Lakes restoration.
 
But the United States Congress and the individual states have yet to make comprehensive Great Lakes restoration a top environmental and economic priority.

The EPA came to Muskegon in May to take samples of the Division Street Outfall, a tributary to Muskegon Lake contaminated with mercury, PCBs and oils, but have not committed to its estimated $30 million cleanup.

Steinman says the EPA determines the timeline for cleanups, and that determines funding. It could be another 10 years or longer before Muskegon Lake might be delisted as an AOC.

In the meantime, scientists are developing innovations for cleaning up contaminated sediments onsite and reusing them instead of hauling them to special landfills, and the MEDC is exploring ways to use water as a potential economic engine for Michigan.

According to a May 8 press release from Senator Carl Levin, since the 2002 legislation, nearly 800,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments have been removed from Great Lakes AOCs.

“The cleanup will be a boon to the city, injecting federal money into the community, creating jobs for local contractors, and when the lake is restored, generating business by drawing more people to the lakeshore,” Steinman says. “We’re not quite there yet.”

Source: Al Steinman, Grand Valley State University Annis Water Resources Institute; Senator Carl Levin

Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].