Calvin receives $375,000 DEQ water quality grant for Plaster Creek Watershed

From: Matthew Kucinski <msk23@calvin.edu>
Date: Mon Jul 23 2012 - 09:43:38 EDT

Calvin College is the recipient of a $375,622 state grant to further their work in the Plaster Creek Watershed. In 2012, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) awarded $3 million in water quality grants to support lake and stream projects in 13 communities.

"What happens in Plaster Creek affects the Grand River and what affects the Grand River, affects Lake Michigan," said Gail Heffner, director of community engagement at Calvin College.

See full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/a-375-000-grant-to-improve-plaster-creek-watershed

Calvin will use the grant money to further education and outreach efforts in local schools, churches and businesses, fund faculty and student research, and do four large-scale bio-swale infiltration projects within the watershed. In addition to involving Calvin faculty and students, local churches and residents in the project, the college will also work with several community partners--including West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Kent Conservation District, the Kent County Drain Commission, the Center for Environmental Study, the City of Grand Rapids and the Kent County Parks Department.

Heffner, biology professor Dave Warners and biology staff member Nathan Haan are all members of the leadership team for the Plaster Creek Stewards, which was formed in 2004 under its former name the Plaster Creek Working Group. In 2011, the group received a $58,500 grant from the River Network and Groundwork USA to expand its educational efforts within the watershed.

Heffner, Haan and Warners agree that the biggest changes will come as a result of education and awareness. They say the big projects funded by this new $375,622 grant aren't big enough to create substantial change. Instead, the really big differences will come when residents that live within the watershed (25-percent of Kent County's population) commit to doing their part.

"It's not the kind of problem you can fix by doing a couple of rain gardens, it's not that simple," said Haan of the condition of the watershed. It's got to be a transformation of how we think about and manage storm water throughout the whole watershed, and that requires a long-term effort."

As part of a redesigned curriculum, a Calvin College biology class "Research Design and Methodology" is doing its small part, using the Plaster Creek watershed as its laboratory. In addition, an oral history research project is underway to collect the stories and experiences of those who have lived or worked within the watershed in the past 60 years. These oral histories reveal how the watershed used to be like and they create a vision for its restoration in the future. Heffner says these are just two examples of how faculty and students are having an impact on the watershed.

"It will take many years to restore Plaster Creek. The watershed is so damaged," said Heffner of improving one of Michigan's most polluted watersheds. "But, with lots of people working together we can make change happen."

And more help is just downstream. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Chicago has chosen the Plaster Creek watershed to serve as the Michigan pilot project for SUSTAIN--a decision support system to facilitate selection and placement of Best Management Practices and Low Impact Development techniques at strategic locations in urban watersheds. Representatives from the EPA will look at sub-areas of the watershed, run spatial modeling and plug in hypothetical storm water management practices. Through that project, those working on Plaster Creek will be able to determine which storm water management projects will have the most benefit to the watershed for the least cost.

"If the EPA is willing to come to our watershed and run models to tell us what practices to do and where, that's terribly useful information because we can then apply for grants to do those specific projects that they recommend we do," said Haan.

"We're really excited to receive the level of funding we need to begin making the kind of changes necessary to turn the health of this creek around," said Warners. "For so many years now, the creek has become increasingly impaired. Our hope is that with the efforts of Plaster Creek Stewards and our community partners we can reverse that trend and begin to see the creek recover, to become the beautiful, life sustaining stream it was intended to be."

For more information, contact Gail Heffner at 616-526-6940 or at gheffner@calvin.edu

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Received on Mon Jul 23 09:43:55 2012

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