Great Lakes Shoreline Project Gets Millions

As part of the overall Great Lakes Restoration Initiative $2.1 million will be invested toward restoring the shoreline of White Lake near Muskegon, Mich.

As part of the overall Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) $2.1 million will be invested toward restoring the shoreline of White Lake near Muskegon, Mich.

Defined as a drowned river mouth lake, White Lake is 2,570 coastal acres in Muskegon County, Mich., along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. It is near the communities of Montague and Whitehall. The land around the lake is mostly woodland and grassy with sand dunes along Lake Michigan. People use the land for both recreation and agriculture. The overall area is a mix of residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural development.

The White Lake shoreline restoration is a joint partnership project headed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of Michigan. The goal is to take White Lake off the binational list of U.S.-Canadian Areas of Concern, (AOC).

The binational list of AOCs has a history over 100 years. In 1909 the United States and Canada formed an international effort to manage the Great Lakes, called the Boundary Waters Treaty. They formed the International Joint Commission.

The commission represents each of the two countries as well as bordering states, tribes, and federal agencies. As environmental concerns and public awareness grew the commission strengthened the treaty with the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements of 1972, 1978, and 1983.

In 1985, the commission’s Water Quality Board identified 43 sites that had a negative environmental impact on the overall Great Lakes. The White Lake, for example, flows into Lake Michigan via the White River. These sites became the AOCs referred to today and include rivers, lakes, and bays.

The White Lake restoration will include fish and wildlife restoration at seven public and private sites along the shoreline. Researchers are studying the area and hope to complete the project by 2012.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative gave the money for the project to the Muskegon Conservation District and the White Lake Public Advisory Council in 2010.

“This project will help achieve GLRI goals, revitalize the community, and move us closer to taking this Area of Concern off the binational cleanup list. But we can’t stop here. We’re looking for other partners to identify matching funds so we can accelerate cleanups in other AOCs in Michigan and around the basin,” said Senior Adviser to the EPA administrator Cameron Davis in a statement.

The major goal of the White Lake restoration is to delist the site as an AOC. Major sediment removal projects in 2002 and 2003 began the progress toward delisting. In 2002, 92,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment were removed from Tannery Bay on the north shore of White Lake. In 2003, another 10,500 cubic yards were removed from the lake.

Further White Lake projects include plans to restore 5,158 feet of shoreline to create 35 acres of wetland and aquatic habitat. Additionally, plans to reconnect and restore eight acres of riparian and upland wildlife habitat corridors and remove another 27, 134 cubic yards of shoreline debris are in the works.