Some Consequences of Sediment Suspended in Streams

"Suspended sediment, through turbidity, reduces light penetration through the water thus reducing photosynthesis.  Fish in nature avoid streams or stream reaches with high suspended sediment levels creating environments just as devoid of fish as if they had been killed." 

Red Run Drain, April 20, 2017

"Deposited sediment increase the level of embeddedness of the stream bed (termed habitat reduction) resulting in a decrease of invertebrate populations and consequently in food available to fish.  Embeddedness refers to the extent to which gravel and cobbles are surrounded or covered by fine sediment.  Decay of deposited organic sediments can also negatively affect in-stream dissolved oxygen concentrations.  This is known as the sediment oxygen demand (SOD)." 


Red Run Subwatershed, 5-9
http://www.crwc.org/wp-content/uploads/Red-Run-Subwatershed-Plan.pdf

Utilize Green Infrastructure in Great Lakes Areas of Concern

Part of the reason why remediation of a legacy of industrial pollution identified as Areas of Concern (AOCs) in the St. Clair River-Detroit River corridor is taking decades to achieve is the over-reliance on concrete and steel projects where green infrastructure would be more effective.

For example, as a means of stormwater control, public and private interests in New York City (including one auto company, Toyota) determined to plant a million trees in 10 years. They achieved that goal in eight years.

In the metro Detroit area (home of three auto companies), large-scale tree planting has been forsaken out of preference for huge concrete and steel projects like the so-called retention-treatment basins (RTBs). Nevertheless, downstream pollution, including sedimentation and turbidity, continues to be problematic.

Kuhn RTB - Oakland County, Michigan

One such, the massive Kuhn RTB (formerly known as Twelve Towns) in Oakland County, recently expanded, continues to divert partially screened and treated, sediment-laden surges down the Red Run Drain to the Clinton River and on to Lake St. Clair when overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms, instead of pumping the effluent to the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant as usual.

Better water quality in Great Lakes AOCs can be hastened by greater reliance on green infrastructure.