State: St. Clair River is OK for swimming

• To read the beach proposal, go to www.michigan.gov/deqaocprogram.
• Under the "Information" heading, click on "MIchigan's Area of Concern," then "St. Clair River."

The water temperature in  the St. Clair River is 33 degrees, and that's too cold for swimming.

But come swimsuit season, the river should most days be safe for bathers.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is proposing the removal of a beach closings beneficial use impairment from the river.

"The contention is, the human sources of pathogens have been taken care of, and we have taken the actions that are necessary to meet the delisting criteria," said Patty Troy, U.S. co-chairwoman of the St. Clair River Area of Concern Bi-national Public Advisory Council.

The DEQ will be accepting comments about the proposed removal of the impairment until March 23.

A beneficial use impairment is a change that restricts people and wildlife from using the river. Current impairments are:

• Restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption
• Restrictions on drinking water consumption, or taste and odor
• Beach closings
• Bird or animal deformities or reproduction problems
• Loss of fish and wildlife habitat

Impairments that previously were removed include: Tainting of fish and wildlife flavor, removed 2012; degradation of aesthetics, removed 2012; added costs to agriculture or industry, removed 2011; degradation of benthos, removed 2014; and restriction on dredging activities, removed 2009.

Troy said all the management actions have been taken to remove loss of fish and wildlife habitat from the list.

After the public comment period, the DEQ will submit the beach closings proposal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the bi-national International Joint Commission for a decision on whether to delist or not, Troy said. The decision could be announced in September, she said.

Kayakers look to paddle Krispin Drain on Harsens Island

There are three beaches on the U.S. side of the river that would be affected by removing the beneficial use impairment: Chrysler Beach in Marsyville, Marine City Beach, and Algonac State Park.

Troy said removing the impairment does not mean the St. Clair County Health Department won't continue beach testing during the summer, nor does it mean that the beaches will never again be closed because of high levels of E. coli bacteria.

Chrysler Beach, she said, "has been a problem in the past and will continue to have some problems, but not enough to warrant area-of-concern considerations."

Troy said Marysville has taken several actions to improve the water quality at Chrysler Beach, including disconnecting three illicit sanitary sewage connections in 2015 from a storm sewer, upgrading the sewage treatment plant to prevent sewer overflows and changing the drainage pattern at the Chrysler Beach and boat launch parking lot to keep rainwater from flowing directly into the river.

She also said all combined sewers flowing directly into the river on the U.S. side have been separated into sanitary and storm sewers.

Port Huron still has a section of combined sewer that flows into the Black River.

Randy Fernandez, Marysville city manager, said $7 million to $8 million in state and federal grants and city resources including labor were spent during the past four years to improve the city's waterfront, including Chrysler Beach.

"We do have beach closings occasionally in Marysville at our beach, just as they do in Lakeside and at others," he said.

He said the city used money from a $500,000 grant for improvements at Chrysler Beach to build rain gardens and bioswales. Those natural features collect water from hard surfaces such as parking lots to allow possible pollutants to settle out before flowing into the St. Clair River.

"We're looking to improve our waterfront, not only for tourism, but so we don't have to close the beach, so our residents and visitors to Marysville can enjoy the amenities we have here," Fernandez said.

Barry Kreiner, the city's director of public works, said the swales and rain gardens were completed by Fall 2014. He said city crews also were able to take care of the illicit connections to the storm sewers.

"There were three that were found in our system," he said. "We didn't have any choice — not only is it the right thing to do, but we had to do it."

Both Fernandez and Kreiner said the city still struggles with geese and keeping goose droppings out of the river.

"There's some goose-deterrent grass, we did that late summer, early fall last year," Kreiner said. "We're hoping that will take off this spring.

"... The geese don't like to feed on the shorter grass when they know by the water there might be a potential predator."

The city in the past has placed coyote decoys at the beach to frighten geese away.

"We have talked at our staff meetings about buying a dog (border collie)," Fernandez said.

Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGross477.

Comments

A proposal by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to remove the beach closings beneficial use impairment from the St. Clair River Area of Concern is at www.michigan.gov/deqaocprogram. Under the "Information" heading, click on "Michigan's Area of Concern," then on "St. Clair River."

Written comments must be submitted before midnight March 23 to Melanie Foose, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Office of the Great Lakes, 27700 Donald Court, Warren MI, 48092 or to foosem@michigan.gov.

Beach closings

From 2003 to 2014, Chrysler Beach in Marysville was closed 16 times because of E. coli levels unsafe for swimming. Marine City Beach was closed once, in 2004, during the same time period.

The beach had no closings in 2014, 2103. 2008 and 2005. It was closed five times in 2009.

The largest E. coli count at the beach from 2003 to 2014 was 1,531 colonies on July 22, 2010. The state requires beach closings when the average of a minimum of three 100-milliliter samples is greater than 300.