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Ezekiel Choffel
ISS 310 People and the Environment
Mon-Wed 12:40-2:30
March 28, 2011
Pollution on the Grand River
Waterways have been one of the primary building blocks of civilization since the
beginning of recorded history. The great civilizations of the ancient world were dependent on
their waterways to pass goods and ideas from one area of their empires to another, in addition to
providing water for crops and drinking these waterways provided a means for these people to
understand their world. Today’s civilizations are equally dependent on their waterways to
provide many of the same benefits. I am from Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is one of the many
homes of the largest river in Michigan, the Grand River. Centrally located in downtown Grand
Rapids, the Grand River separates the city into the Eastside and the Westside. During the lumber
boom of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Grand Rapids was the furniture capital of the world and
for most of the boom all of the lumber that was needed to manufacture said furniture came to the
city via the Grand River. Throughout the history of Grand Rapids the Grand has undergone many
changes, for example the width of the river was cut in half in an attempt to cut down on log jams
that would completely stop the flow of the river and make it impossible to extract the logs that
were causing the stoppage. Shortly after the demise of the lumber boom a new problem arose,
the industries created by the automobile factories would dump heavy metals and caustic
chemicals directly in to the Grand as a way to rid themselves of their waste products. The Grand
has undergone many transitions, between the heavy industry seeking a means to dump their
wastes and conservation efforts by the local government and populations. During the 1980’s the
pollution levels of the Grand reached their peak, at nearly every boat launch the garbage lined
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the shores and chemical slicks would swirl around any boat or animal that attempted to traverse
the waterway. My Uncle Jim, who is an avid fisherman, once told me about how there were spots
just past the city limits where you could light water on fire, which was, according to him, the last
time he fished in the Grand. More recently there has been a large push to clean up the grand, to
make it hospitable again and to remove as much of the pollution as possible.
Grand Rapids has been one of the leading cities in the country as far as water treatments
go, being the first city in Michigan and the disputed first country in the nation to include fluoride
in the drinking water. Similarly, much of the pollution of the grand went unchecked for long
enough that by the time the problem was recognized the particulates per billion were out of
control. By applying similar questions as William Cronon applied to New England, I will discuss
whether or not the pollution of the Grand River was created by man or would have happened
naturally, in addition, I will shed light on the current and past ecological preservation efforts to
answer the question of the benefit or detriment of mankind on this vital river.
Any resident of Grand Rapids has heard the many different jokes pertaining to the Grand.
Is it the Grand Toilet? The Grand Garbage Dump? For much of the 20th century these statements
would be fairly accurate. The large scale pollution of the Grand began, as it does with most
industrialized cities, when a large manufacturing base was established in the areas surrounding
the river. In this case, as stated before, it was the manufacturing of furniture. The process for
shipping large quantities of lumber from one area of Michigan to another was to use the various
connecting waterways as a mode of transporting over 20 million trees a year. During the early
lumber boom the Grand river served as one of two main lumber ports for the furniture industry,
the other being only used for a very brief time was the Thornapple River which is a tributary of
the Grand. By sending the massive quantities of lumber down Michigan’s rivers sediments of all
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kinds were dumped into the waterways, these sediments were estimated in 1935 to equal nearly a
million years worth of erosion. According to early ecological researchers of the Grand, as found
in The Story of Grand Rapids, These sediments created many problems within the ecosystems of
the Grand by changing the depths of the river and disrupting natural habitats for the surrounding
animals who depended on the Grand River for survival. In addition to increased sediment
deposits, Industrial chemicals such as oil were also leaked into the rivers from the mills which
would cut many of the trees in half for easier transport once they reached their end destination in
Grand Rapids.
It doesn’t take much thought to realize that this polluting of the Grand River is humanly
created. Rivers can handle natural erosion in most cases, but are unable to cope with the scale of
erosion that can be created by industry. Complete river banks were destroyed in the process.
Since the Grand runs East to West the devastation from the lumber boom is not as profound and
long lasting as it is in many of the Northern rivers, but none the less there are complete sections
of the Grand that have been re-routed by this erosion. As can been seen by the geological
research of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory there have been trends of
heightened sediment levels as far back 1864, but the highest per year increases between 18851895. There are no conclusions offered as to what the cause of these heightened levels are, but
when one looks at the history of the Grand and this time also being the height of the lumber
boom the conclusion can be draw that it was from increased human activities that the Grand
River received its first large scale ecological attack from an outside source.
That is not to say the natural processes would not have caused erosion. Erosion would
have happened either way, that is a given part of the Earth’s rebuilding processes. According to
the natural geological impact of erosion would have eventually caused the same results, but the
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estimated time frame that it would take is approximately one million years, and that is considered
by some geologists to be the low end estimated timeframe. ( K e n t 7 9 - 8 3 )
The impact of increased human activity in the Grand Rapids region of the Grand was a
direct cause of the increased erosion. Similar to the issues Cronon faced when looking solely at a
before and after picture of the New England, it is impossible to look just look at the before and
after of the Grand River Valley. The statistics and historical evidence involved are what makes
the comparison possible. The Transport Mechanism for Catastrophic Rock Falls is a geological
study, there is not enough text involved to be bias, there are not opinions, so unless the numbers
are cooked and the organization that published the study did not catch or were colluding with the
researchers, this article is credible and shows the increase of erosion in the Grand River Valley.
With nearly no time to recover, the Grand’s ecology was being attacked, this time with
heavy metals and industrial chemicals. Grand Rapids has spent much of its history as an
industrial center. While not as large as Detroit’s manufacturing capabilities, Grand Rapids
manufacturing infrastructure is of a sizable enough size that pollution is a continuous issue.
During the early 20th century and continuing until the 1980’s, the common protocol for industrial
wastes that were perceived to be water soluble was to dump the chemical waste into the river,
“where it would disappear forever.” ( C h a m b e r s a n d E a d i e 1 - 3 4 ) The problem was that
this chemical waste did not disappear forever, in fact the pollution problem got so bad that by the
1980’s the fish that were caught from the river where contaminated beyond safe ingestion. An
example of the contamination is the average mercury content of salmon caught for testing in
1976 was increased from years previous ( C h a m b e r s a n d E a d i e 1 - 3 4 ) Salmon were not the
only fish caught in the industrial cross fire, steelhead and different trout species where among the
other fish with abnormally high mercury levels.
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One of the largest culprits of Mercury dumping was the plating industry. Based in the
former “Industrial Section” of downtown there were once more than 15 different plating shops,
all with drainage that led directly to the Grand River.
This is a clear example of humans negatively impacting the environment around them. It
was known when the sewage system was established that eventually all sewage would end up
into the Grand River or a surrounding tributary. The industry owners and workers were not
directly to blame, many of the toxins and carcinogens that are known to be detrimental in
modern society where unknown to have negative side effects. In addition it was believed that the
water would purify whatever waste that was dumped into the river. ( S c h r a u b e n ) Now it is
known that Mercury, for example, can potentially kill humans and at the very least it will stay in
a human body the extent of their life. Based on the research, much of the ecological issues
involving chemical dumping came about due to convenience and a lack of knowledge
concerning the long term effects.
As outlined by the lumber example, it is additionally impossible to look solely at the
before and after picture. Mercury is a naturally occurring element and there are trace amounts in
most fish as Mercury is absorbed through the fishes skin, but the concerning issue with the fish
studied in the 1981 was that the levels of Mercury contained in the fish were beyond the safe
levels that one could expect to ingest and survive for very long. ( D o l a n a n d Y u i 1 - 8 )
The story does not end there for the chemical dumpers. During the 1980’s there was a
push from the local population to clean up the Grand River. This push quickly turned into a
movement which had much support and money backing it. Within two years the levels of
Mercury had dropped by 5%, meaning they were close to edible levels. The Chemical industry,
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primarily the many corporate buys and sellers to GM, agreed with the populaces stance and made
the technological changes to reduce overall emissions of toxic chemicals into the Grand. Today
there are still instances of spillage accidents, but they are few and minor in scope compared to
the dumping of the past decades. There remains sediment deposits of these dumped heavy metals
that did not dissolve near Grandville, a suburb of Grand Rapids, and every year during the
summer months this area is tested with gradually declining results. ( D o l a n a n d Y u i 1 - 8 )
As the late 1990’s closed a new problem for the Grand was discovered. The rain overflow
was carrying a “large” amount of oil from the streets and parking lots. Grand Rapids has a water
treatment plant that services the rain water and sewage lines from the city that was built during
the 1980’s as part of the movement to clean up the river. About once a year, it rains enough that
the treatment plant gets over flowed and different types biological wastes are spilt over into the
Grand and eventually Lake Michigan. Compared to the spillage of the 1980’s the amount of
waste that is released into the Grand are fairly minimal, displacing less than 1% of river water.
( " C i t y o f G r a n d R a p i d s - W a s t e W a t e r P l a n t " ) In addition, before the water
overflows it is at least run through most of the pretreatment process which includes UV light
which kills nearly 90% of bacteria. The UV process does not attack or destroy non-living toxins
such as trace pharmaceuticals, which have seen steadily rising contamination numbers, but as
stated above most of the living organisms such as E. Coli are destroyed.
The water treatment plant of Grand Rapids is a open service where anyone who schedules
an appointment is free to take a tour and look at the treatment processes themselves. The website
for the treatment plant states that over the last five years the overall contamination levels of the
grand have been dramatically reduced as a direct result of the treatment processes. The water
treatment plant is a defined step in the correct direction. When dealing with the dumping
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concerns of the 1980’s many misnomers where circulated about the Grand River. As I made
reference to the many jokes circulated about the Grand River in an earlier section, these jokes
were true for nearly 80 years. It has been through the work of the treatment plant and other water
awareness organizations to change the opinions about the pollution levels of the Grand by
replacing incorrect information with current research which states that there has been a nearly
93% reduction in overall pollution in the Grand. ( " C i t y o f G r a n d R a p i d s - W a s t e W a t e r
Plant ")
This is a case of old habits dying hard. The community and city have done their part to
change its water use and water treatment practice, but the population is unaware of what these
organizations have done. Most acknowledge that it is now safe to eat one to two fish a year from
the Grand, but do not give and credit to the facilities that have made this possible. The Grand
surrounding Grand Rapids has been a success story, with city leaders and community organizers
advancing the work of water treatment by changing how the city manages its water treatment.
The changes in organization alone have allowed the treatment plant to succeed because they are
capable of changing what is necessary when it is necessary. Now, it is a matter of making the
public truly aware of the changes in the Grand’s ecology, because most of the city dwellers are
living in the past when the Grand’s pollution levels are concerned. It is not possible to light the
water on fire, Nor will someone die from eating fish caught from the Grand’s many fishing
holes.
There are still pollution concerns, like litter and plastics, that have not been addressed on
such a large scale, but this is an example where the before and after approach is one of hope. The
changes in toxicity levels and sediment levels have come from direct human interaction and
involvement. The city of Grand Rapids recognized a problem in the Grand’s ecosystem and
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sought to right these problems. The work of maintaining a healthy river system is ongoing and
changing with new technologies. Cronon’s questions of the spiritual and physical aspects of
pollution remain solid logic when applied to the Grand, but this is a situation where the people
have seen the devastation their actions have had and have changed them in response. In addition,
Michigan has suffered a generalized similar situation as that faced by New England, both
landscapes, and in the case of the Grand waterway, suffered directly from human actions. It has
been through conscious raising of awareness levels that the Grand has been able to stabilize into
a fairly healthy river. The studies conducted by the various sources used here have all been
published to the public and the impact of rising public awareness has been directly beneficial to
the establishment of clean water policies that have cleaned up the largest river in Michigan.
The projected future of the Grand is that of hope. Hope that efforts will continue towards
having a clean river for recreation, hope that efforts will continue towards increased human
involvement in maintaining cleanliness of the Grand. Cronon’s questions present further
questions when dealing with any landscape. In the case of the Grand questions of blame serve
multiple purposes in that much of the information on the Grand is public domain and can be
readily available to anyone who seeks the information out. In addition to the question of blame,
and arguably more important, is the question of what can be done as preventative measures to
prevent the 1980’s problems from happening again. In this case the answer lies in increased
human involvement. By continued awareness corporations become unable to dump their wastes
into the Grand, in addition to being held accountable when accidental spillovers happen. It takes
more than black and white analysis of the Grand to see where the problems lie with both the past
and the current structure, but the people and government of Grand Rapids is doing its part to
maintain the clean and safe standards that have been set by the people living by the Grand.
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Work Cited
City of Grand Rapids. City of Grand Rapids -Waste Water Plant .
Grand Rapids: , 2010. Web. 25 March, 2011. <http://www.grand rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=3683>. ("City of Grand Rapids-Waste
Water Plant ")
D o l a n , D a v i d , a n d A l e x a n d e r yu i . " E v a l u a t i o n o f R i v e r L o a d
Estimation Methods for Total Phosphorus." (1981): 1 -8. Web. 25 March,
2011.<http://www.uwgb.edu/doland/GLGrants/evaluation_of_river_load_e
stimation_methods_for_total_p.pdf>. (Dolan and Yui 1 -8)
Kent , P.E. "The Transport Mechani sm in Catastrophic Rock Falls."
Chigago Journals (1965): 79-83. Web. 25 March, 2011.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/30075179>. (Kent 79 -83)
Lyden, Z.Z. The Story of Grand Rapids . 2nd. Grand Rapids: 1963. 1 248. Print(Lyden 1-248)
Padgett, Ken. "Histry of Michigan's Lumber Boom."
History of Michigan's Lumber Boom . N.p., 14 Oct,2008. Web. 25
M a r c h , 2 0 1 1 . < h t t p : / / a g i l e w r i t e r . c o m / H i s t o r y/ M i _ l u m b e r . h t m > .
(Padgett)
Chambers, Richard, and Brian Eadie. "NRARSHORE CHEMISTRY
IN THE VIC INITY." NRARSHORE CHEMISTRY I N THE VICINITY (1980):
1-34. Web. 25 March, 2011.
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<http://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/ftp/publications/tech_reports/glerl -028/tm028.pdf>. (Chambers and Eadie 1 -34)
Schrauben, Melissa . "Pollution in the Grand River." The Rapidian,
07 Dec, 2010. Web. 25 March, 2011. <http://therapidian.org/water quality-grand-river>. (Schrauben)