Macomb County, US Army Corps investigating muck along Lake St. Clair
MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - It stinks, it's an eye sore and there's not much known about it.
"Muck" found a home along shorelines, canals and docks along Lake St. Clair. It's something residents say has been around for decades and Macomb County is partnering with the feds to study the muck and try to and find its origin.
"It seems to be organic; it seems to be growing on the bottom of Lake St. Clair in various areas, and when you get an onshore wind, the stuff just keeps piling up on the shoreline," Candice Miller, Macomb County Public Works commissioner, says about Lyngbya, also known as "muck".
Miller says the county is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a two-year study to learn more about the spread of muck, ecological and human health risks, and the eventual creation of a management plan for it around the lake. The project will cost a total of $400,000 which will be split between the county and the Army Corps of Engineers.
"We used to swim out there all of the time and it was nice clean water," says Harrison Township resident Rick Dobreff as he reminisced on his childhood swimming in the lake.
Dobreff lives next door to a now-closed boat launch in Harrison Township. The launch was forced to close because of the muck.
His family bought the home that he and his family live in now in 1972. He bought it from his parents in 1994. He says muck has been around for decades.
"In the year 2000, I had to dredge my boat well. It was completely dry and it was all filled with that muck," he told CBS News Detroit in a Zoom call.
Dobreff says the smell is unbearable during the summer heat; to the point where sitting out on the water isn't even possible.
"I've a couple of times went into the water and done some things on my boatlifts and you sink right down into the muck and I come out and I got to douse myself with cleaning just to get rid of it," he says.
Dobreff wants to see results and answers to combat the muck. He believes it's sewage and that funds put into muck mitigation should be spent effectively through disposal efforts.
"What's causing it? Is it climate change? Is it the zebra mussels? Is it combined sewer overflow that are coming down the Clinton River spillway and feeding this organically? We really don't know," says Miller.
