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.

Open FOIA Appeal to OCWRC

In May and June of last year, I visited dozens of construction sites in a number of Oakland County communities and took photos.  Contractors at many of those sites had not applied any erosion control methods or had not maintained those that had been installed (mostly silt fence), contrary to state and federal water quality laws.  I saw dried mud leading from construction sites to the street and city sewers.

I reported what I had seen to city officials and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).  In those communities where the erosion control enforcement agency was the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner (OCWRC), MDEQ asked OCWRC to investigate and report back.  There are indications that didn’t happen.  One of my inquiries into the matter is described below.

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Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner:

This is an appeal of your FOIA coordinator’s denial of my FOIA request dated July 30, 2015, viz:

Pursuant to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, please furnish me with electronic copies of:

1. the chicken scratch handed by OCWRC’s Don (presumably Houston) to OCWRC’s Joseph (or Joe) Gardner, referred to in Gardner’s email of July 10, 2014 to Cheryl Petroski-Wilson of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Southeast Michigan District Office, which states, “Yes I did and Don had a chicken scratch that he handed me. I told him to clean it up so I could understand it, then give it back to me. I will get you our findings when he comes in this afternoon. Sorry I forgot about it.”
2. the cleaned up version.

I think I can prove that representatives of your office have been dodging OCWRC’s responsibilities as County Enforcement Agency (CEA) under soil erosion control laws and rules, rendering those laws and rules useless, permitting soil erosion, turbidity and sedimentation of lakes and streams within various International Joint Commission (IJC) Areas of Concern (AOCs) during combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

Furthermore, in denying me access under FOIA to records in your office that will substantiate my findings and conclusions, your FOIA coordinator relies on a non-specific, undifferentiated array of possible reasons for the denial, violating the purpose, letter and spirit of the statute.  

Her denial begins, “The information you requested...either does not exist, is not maintained by this office, or is exempt from disclosure, therefore your request is denied.”

Denial of a FOIA request in such a manner is vague, obscure, arbitrary and capricious, contrary to the intent of the Act.

Therefore, I urge under the strongest terms that you (1) disaffirm the coordinator’s denial, (2) furnish me with the precise justification for the denial, and (3) upon further inquiry on your part, provide me with the records sought in my original request.

-- Jim Lang

(etc.)

Turbidity and Suspended Solids

One measure of water quality in our lakes and streams is turbidity.  Turbid is a characteristic or condition of fluid that is opaque, murky or cloudy, deficient in clarity.  It is caused by fine particles or solids suspended in the fluid.

Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection

Sediment is a common component of solids suspended in natural bodies of water, often originating from soil loosened and exposed by human activity, such as construction or farming. Weakness in laws for the control of erosion and runoff, as well as lax enforcement, are ongoing causes of impairments to our surface water resources.
 
Sediment (along with toxins and pathogens) is transported to lakes and streams by runoff after heavy rains. Some of that runoff becomes overflow from storm or combined storm/sanitary sewers.
 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines the negative effects of turbidity as follows: 

Higher turbidity increases water temperatures because suspended particles absorb more heat. This, in turn, reduces the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) because warm water holds less DO than cold. Higher turbidity also reduces the amount of light penetrating the water, which reduces photosynthesis and the production of DO. Suspended materials can clog fish gills, reducing resistance to disease in fish, lowering growth rates, and affecting egg and larval development. As the particles settle, they can blanket the stream bottom, especially in slower waters, and smother fish eggs and benthic macroinvertebrates.

There is an aesthetic value in water clarity as well.

Christine Kemker has written a comprehensive treatise on turbidity. [Kemker, Christine. “Turbidity, Total Suspended Solids and Water Clarity.” Fundamentals of Environmental Measurements. Fondriest Environmental, Inc. 13 Jun. 2014. Web. < http://www.fondriest.com/environmental-measurements/parameters/water-quality/turbidity-total-suspended-solids-water-clarity/ >.]
 
A few excerpts will serve as an introduction:
 

Total suspended solids (TSS) are particles that are larger than 2 microns found in the water column. Anything smaller than 2 microns (average filter size) is considered a dissolved solid...

The turbidity of water is based on the amount of light scattered by particles in the water column 2. The more particles that are present, the more light that will be scattered. As such, turbidity and total suspended solids are related. However, turbidity is not a direct measurement of the total suspended materials in water...

Total suspended solids, on the other hand, are a total quantity measurement of solid material per volume of water 6. This means that TSS is a specific measurement of all suspended solids, organic and inorganic, by mass. TSS includes settleable solids, and is the direct measurement of the total solids present in a water body. As such, TSS can be used to calculate sedimentation rates, while turbidity cannot 1,6...

Pollutants such as dissolved metals and pathogens can attach to suspended particles and enter the water 2. This is why an increase in turbidity can often indicate potential pollution, not just a decrease in water quality. Contaminants include bacteria, protozoa, nutrients (e.g. nitrates and phosphorus), pesticides, mercury, lead and other metals 17. Several of these pollutants, especially heavy metals, can be detrimental and often toxic to aquatic life 26...

For those concerned about water quality, Kemker’s piece is worth reading in its entirety.

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