Grayling Stormwater Project
Through a partnership with the City of Grayling, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Huron Pines, Gosling Czubak Engineering, and many conservation partners, the first phase of construction began in 2005. The goal of the project is to reduce 80% of the polluted water runoff from the City of Grayling to the Au Sable River. Because of this partnership to reduce polluted stormwater runoff, the river (and the community which depends upon it) can run clear, cold and clean for years to come. Without a project such as this, the river is impacted by fluctuating flows, turbidity, warmer water temperatures, and pollutants such as oils, greases, sediment, trash, heavy metals and pesticides.
In the fall of 2005, measures were put in place in the section of the city just south of the river in order to begin the process of achieving the reduction in pollution. This included a combination of underground oil/grit seperators to treat stormwater and small retention basins to infiltrate water into the ground. In 2006, these retention areas used to infiltrate polluted stormwater runoff will be planted with shrubs and perennial flowers, acting as "rain gardens" to help protect the Au Sable River. Once established, rain gardens can be a valuable landscape feature as well as a low maintenanance method of reducing runoff. Used in combination with other treatment approaches, the city and its residents will have a first-of-its-kind project they can be proud of.
The generous project sponsors include the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Clean Michigan Initiative Fund; City of Grayling; Trout Bum Bar-B-Q; Michigan Fly Fishing Club; Ray's Canoeing and the Fly Factory; Spike's Keg of Nails; Upper Au Sable River Preservation Association; Huron Pines; many individual donors; and the following Chapters of Trout Unilimited -- Paul H. Young, Kalamazoo Valley (Stanley Weber Projects Fund), Elliott Donnelley, Mason-Griffith Founders, William B. Mershon, and Lee Wulff. For more information, email us here. |
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