After decades of coordinated cleanup and community engagement, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy announced Oct. 1 that Muskegon Lake is no longer on a list of the Great Lakes’ most polluted places.
EGLE officials joined federal and local leaders at Heritage Landing Park in Muskegon for a celebration of the lake’s removal, or delisting, from the U.S.-Canadian roster of Areas of Concern (AOC) around the Great Lakes.
“Completing this long journey of recovery, restoration, and renewal is a tremendous community achievement that EGLE has been proud to assist,” said EGLE Director Phil Roos in a press release. “Along with many partners, we celebrate today’s success and look forward to supporting tomorrow’s stewardship and growth.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager Anne Vogel called it “a significant milestone in our ongoing work to restore and protect the Great Lakes. This accomplishment showcases the commitment and collaborative spirit of our partners in restoring not just the lake, but also the habitats and recreational opportunities that had been lost for so long.”
AOCs are designated areas in the Great Lakes Basin marked by high levels of historical legacy pollution requiring cleanup. The Great Lakes AOC Program was established in 1987 under the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to tackle the worst pollution hot spots.
Muskegon Lake was named an AOC even earlier, in 1985, following more than a century of contamination from industrial and municipal waste.
The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership (MLWP) formed in 1991. Six years later, sediment remediation projects for AOCs received $9.4 million from the Clean Michigan Initiative. Over the next 28 years, additional funding would come from the Great Lakes Legacy Act, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and more.
All told, remediation and restoration took more than $84 million, including $67 million in federal funds, largely through the GLRI, and $17 million in state, local, and private contributions.
“For decades, our community has worked with partners in the nonprofit sector and every level of government to heal the wounds left by industrial pollution and to restore our treasured Muskegon Lake,” said Muskegon mayor Ken Johnson in the release. “Today’s delisting is not only an environmental victory but a testament to what’s possible when people come together with a shared vision for a healthier, more sustainable future.”
EGLE joined efforts with the EPA, local governments and tribes, and partners including Grand Valley State University (GVSU), the Muskegon Conservation District, the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission, and other federal agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Federal, state, and local project partners remediated more than 190,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and restored approximately 134 acres of habitat and over 6,000 feet of shoreline including nearly 100 acres of open water and emergent wetlands, as well as habitat for fish and native plants. Partners also removed more than 110,000 tons of logging-era sawmill debris from the lake, restoring habitat for bottom-dwelling invertebrates, fish, and wildlife.
By 2024, each of Muskegon Lake’s beneficial use impairments, or BUIs, under the AOC program was formally removed. Signoff by the U.S. State Department on Sept. 26 made the delisting official.
The investments are already paying dividends. According to a GVSU study, the remediation and restoration of Muskegon Lake is projected to increase local home values by nearly $8 million and boost the local recreation economy by $28 million annually. Muskegon already has seen a 19% increase in marina customers and a 45% increase in hotel room tax collected by the county. Overall, the projections anticipate a nearly six to one ratio of return on investment. More information is available at the EPA’s Muskegon Lake Area of Concern website.
Muskegon Lake is the eighth U.S. AOC to be delisted and the fourth in Michigan, after Deer Lake in the Upper Peninsula and White Lake along Lake Michigan were delisted in 2014 and the Lower Menominee River, shared with Wisconsin, was delisted in 2020.
