Will study fix 'muck' clogging up Lake St. Clair? Harrison Twp. residents hope so

Harrison Township ― Rick Dobreff said he doesn’t feel comfortable entertaining guests at his home on Lake St. Clair anymore because of the brown muck by his shoreline.

A layer of Lyngbya ― a kind of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria ― has accumulated in the water by his lakefront Harrison Township property in recent years. Vegetation has grown on top of the muck-like substance, making it appear like land.

 “I can’t have people over and smelling that,” said Dobreff, who said the Lyngbya smells like "rotten sewer" or "rotten vegetation," and it's especially strong on a 90-degree day.

But Dobreff hopes a two-year, $400,000 study that Macomb County is conducting in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine how the Lyngbya grows and whether it poses health risks can provide some answers in how to address it. Dobreff said he’d like to see the results of the study and hopes the scientists will come up with a solution. The muck has been plaguing Lake St. Clair for more than 10 years.

“We got to figure out where it’s coming from, what it is, before we can fix it,” he said.

Dobreff is one of several Harrison Township residents who generally are glad the study, which began this past spring, is happening, but want action taken after it’s completed.  

Alyssa Calomeni, an Army Corps research biologist, said the research team plans to use a combination of methods to manage the blue-green algae, which will likely include mechanically removing many of the algal masses in Lake St. Clair and then applying chemicals, which would be EPA-registered algaecides. Treatment plans could change as the study progresses.

Figuring out what all ‘the muck’ is about

Lyngbya is a mat-forming cyanobacteria that grows in freshwater lakes and rivers. Lyngbya mats have appeared in recent years all along the shoreline in Harrison Township, dating back to 2010 when residents were widely calling the mysterious masses “the muck.”

Candice Miller, Macomb County’s public works commissioner, said the two-year study seeks to learn what the "muck” is and what’s causing it. Calomeni, an Army Corps research biologist based at the Engineer Research and Development Center in Mississippi, said in May that they’ll also assess potential risks associated with the bacterium, including taste and odor compounds and toxin production.

More:Army Corps researchers launch study on Lake St. Clair's algae 'muck'

The researchers will then develop a plan to try to manage the growth of Lyngbya, Calomeni said. She worked on a similar project at Lay Lake in Alabama.

In that case, water resource managers had already tried mechanically harvesting the Lyngbya and treating it with algaecides. So the research team tested various algaecides on the cyanobacteria and determined which ones were the most effective. They then shared that data with the individuals in Alabama, who were able to tweak the chemical products they were using to better treat the blue-green algae.

Miller wondered why “the muck” keeps appearing.

“I don’t know if it’s climate change? Is it because of combined sewer overflows?” she asked. “We don’t really know what it is. … The experts are now looking at it.”

Miller said the public works team and the Army Corps scientists collected some samples of the blue-green algae in May, and the public works crew pulled more samples from Lake St. Clair in late August. The samples are being tested at the Engineer Research and Development Center in Mississippi. Miller said Macomb County is “very excited” for the Army Corps to do the study.

“We feel real confident that we’re getting a good group to address this issue,” she said.

Hesitation about what study will yield

Penny Swanson, a retired resident of Harrison Township, said she doesn’t find a lot of reassurance in studies.

“They take forever,” she said, “and not much happens.”

Swanson’s condo looks out at Lake St. Claire and at her community’s marina, which boats are no longer able to access. Lyngbya has taken over the boat wells, and plants grow on top of the bacteria, making the area appear like a field.  

Swanson, who has worked as a court reporter and a metalsmith, predicts that it’ll take millions to fix Lake St. Clair’s blue-green algae problem. Considering that other areas of Lake St. Clair have the same problem as her own community, she said she doesn’t know when or if it’ll ever get fixed.

Another resident of Swanson’s condo community, Bill Hanus, said he’s in favor of the study, but he wants there to be action after it’s completed.

“Hopefully, it’ll get us some answers,” he said, “but then we have to act on those answers.”

Concerns about sewage overflows

Kirsten Gardner, who lives on Lake St. Clair, said she’s “completely on board” with the study. She said she fully supports anything that can be done to clean up the lake.

She noted that many residents believe sewage overflows are a cause of the Lyngbya on the lake. Local governments in Oakland and Macomb Counties sometimes release wastewater into the Clinton River or its tributaries, as the water can exceed a sewage system’s capacity. The Clinton River ultimately enters Lake St. Clair.

Gardner said she doesn’t feel comfortable swimming by her dock because “it’s gross.” Lyngbya accumulates along her shoreline.

“It’d be nice to just be able to go out there and go swimming or enjoy it without having it being the way it is,” she said.

She said she feels that the blue-green algae problem needs to be handled at a higher level than just the level of Macomb County. She thinks it could be addressed at the state level and at the international level, since Lake St. Clair touches Canada and the U.S.

Gardner said that if other counties than Macomb are found to partly responsible for the problem, she hopes they’ll be involved in the solution. She said that many people in Michigan get their drinking water from Lake St. Clair.

“I feel like because it’s the source of drinking water for so many people,... it should be handled at a much higher level,” she said.

asnabes@detroitnews.com