By Joe Kutkuhn
Beneath all the hoopla this spring about the Au Sable’s “rebirth” as an angling nirvana there persists sobering concern — challenged by fresh denial — that the threat to river quality from untreated urban runoff continues to mount. Common sense alone gives substance to this anxiety. If still in doubt, observe and smell the city outfalls every time it rains, and not where all the putrid issue ends up and some of it accumulates. Better yet, with eyes and nose wide open, take a float for the first few miles below Grayling and report back on the sights and odors encountered. Appreciate too that what you sense along the way represents only the “tip of a big iceberg,’ which the Foundation insists must be assessed as the basis for runoff-treatment action and later follow-up. Because projected funding has not materialized as quickly as anticipated, the Foundation regrets having been momentarily delayed in moving ahead with this assessment as planned.
The Foundation reported on March 1 st that it had recently instructed its contractor McNamee, Porter and Seeley Inc. (MPS) of Ann Arbor/Lansing, to implement the project’s next phase. In addition to development of stream flow monitoring and sampling protocols, phase 2 will entail acquisition and placement of associated, high-tech instrumentation assemblages. These packages are to include automatic water samplers, flow-sensing loggers and temperature/ conductivity/oxygen probes, together with associated solar panels, cellular phones/modems, communication software and all necessary networking components. It was also reported that individual packages will be deployed in security enclosures at each of three sites, two above Grayling in the mainstream at (1) Pollack Bridge Road and the East Branch at (2) Wilcox Bridge, and one below the mainstream at (3) Rayburn Bridge. Network-integrated, strategically sited precipitation gauges will complete the array. Streamflow will be sampled automatically for contaminants both in response to runoff events and randomly during each season, while its volume and physiochemical properties are to be monitored continuously. This synchronous, remotely sensed and computerized evaluation of stream flow will subsequently proceed as phase 3 for one full year at each of the three interconnected sites, thus providing the baseline assessment of urban runoff deemed essential as the groundwork for instituting treatment measures.
The Foundation further reported in March that, for help in project management, it retained the administrative and technical services of the Huron Pines Resource Conservation and Development Area Council, Inc. (RC&D) in Grayling. Through this affiliation, it also joined the existing Au Sable River Watershed Restoration Committee as a contributing partner.
Proceeding with phase 2, originally scheduled for this spring, has been unexpectedly slowed while the Foundation awaits the results of an initiative to acquire the additional funds – about $75,000 – it needs for project completion. Monitoring and sampling (i.e., phase 3) are now expected to begin sometime next spring. [Note: An application to Trout Unlimited (TU) for some Embrace-A Stream money yielded a grant of $6,000 earlier this year. And the Foundation remains in debt to groups sponsoring events like the successful Trout Bum and Makers’ Rod celebration, which provided $5,000 in 1998, and last year’s George W. Mason (TU) Chapter banquet, which produced $4,500. Also in 1998, Anglers of the Au Sable generously donated $5,000, and the Paul H. Young (TU) Chapter, $2,000. The Foundation deeply appreciates the support of these and many other contributors. RWOL
© Copyright 1999- , Anglers of the Au Sable, Inc. All rights reserved. Last modified: January 17, 2002
