Michigan Awards Grants to Restore, Protect Water Quality

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on Wednesday awarded 11 grants totaling over $4.7 million for watershed management projects that will benefit wetlands, lakes and streams.

Each grant will reduce sediment, nutrients and other contaminants to help restore impaired water bodies and protect high-quality water bodies.

Organizations and projects selected to receive implementation funding:

• Ottawa Conservation District: $929,061 to use environmental and social monitoring to target enactment of agricultural best management practices and septic system repairs and replacements in the Sand and Crockery Creek Watersheds.
• West Michigan Environmental Action Council: $781,123 to expand the use of green storm water infrastructure in critical areas of the Lower Grand River Watershed. The project will use outreach and workshops for the business community, community organizations and residents to increase storm water best management practices on private property.
• Huron Conservation District: $767,004 for an incentive program targeting agricultural producers that includes structural, vegetative and managerial best management practices to reduce sediment, nutrient and pathogen loads to the Pigeon River and Saginaw Bay.
• Village of Beulah: $519,949 to install rain gardens, bioswales, infiltration structures and inlet filters to reduce urban pollutant loads and stormwater that are having an impact on Cold Creek and Crystal Lake. The project will reduce E. coli and nutrient‑rich sediment while preserving the cold-water fishery.
• Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy: $455,493 for permanent conservation easements to protect 269 acres of natural uplands and wetlands and 10,000 feet of creek frontage within the Paw Paw River Watershed, ensuring that the land will not be developed.
• Delta Service Through Detroit Foundation, Inc.: $308,167 to increase urban green infrastructure in the Rouge River watershed using faith/community-based properties for large scale community outreach to reduce urban storm water runoff.
• Marquette Charter Township: $293,356 to reduce nonpoint source pollutants, improve stream conditions and restore hydrology by replacing four dramatically undersized culverts with appropriately sized bottomless arch culverts in an urban cold-water stream.
• Outdoor Discovery Center (ODC Network): $257,684 to continue restoration efforts on Peters Creek, a major tributary of the Macatawa River in Ottawa County. The project will use natural channel techniques to restore 1,700 feet of unstable stream channel.
• Clinton River Watershed Council: $160,590 to retrofit a parking lot within the city of Center Line’s Downtown Development Area using low impact development techniques. Four bioretention cells will be installed to mitigate stormwater runoff in the highly urbanized Bear Creek subwatershed.
• Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, Petoskey: $153,938 to install 1,000 feet of shoreline improvements, promote sustainable riparian practices with targeted outreach and work to strengthen local environmental ordinances.
• Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Inc.: $94,866 to repair a failed road stream crossing on Deer Creek, a cold-water tributary of the Yellow Dog River in Marquette County. The project will restore the hydrology and sediment flow of Deer Creek and maintain the cold-water recharge of the Yellow Dog River.

The grants are funded under the federal Clean Water Act – Section 319 and the Clean Michigan Initiative – Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Grants Program.

Grants are offered via an annual request for proposals with the next opportunity to apply in mid-July at Michigan.gov/NPS. EGLE’s Nonpoint Source Program helps local stakeholders reduce pollution and excess runoff by supporting efforts to develop and launch watershed management plans.