It's not lost, it's not dead and it's certainly not beyond repair.
The dark, usually murky water of the Red Cedar River, which some call the "Dead Cedar," can be misleading, but the winding waterway is in much better shape than it was in the 1960s, when a film of sludge and algae skimmed the top.
As a result of the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Red Cedar has become a cleaner, safer river.
But even so, E. coli can still rise to unsafe levels while river advocates continue the fight to erase the river's dark shadows of raw sewage drains and dangerous water.
In spring 2004, Joan Rose, the Homer Nowlin Chair in water research at MSU, used tracking methods to discover human fecal matter and single-celled parasites that cause diarrhea and other complications in the Red Cedar River.
After screening the bacteria found in the river to show fecal material, Rose said in her group's larger study, they found evidence of fluctuation in these parasites and fecal matter with evidence of human sewage entering the river.
"The real goal was whether we could find parasites in the river and we were able to find parasites," Rose said.
This evidence of raw sewage and human waste entering the Red Cedar was much more evident as early as a year ago, when more combined sewage pipes, which can carry a mix of raw sewage and storm water during an influx of water, flowed into the river.
Since then, the number of combined pipes has been reduced to one, and efforts stemming from Phase II of the 1999 Clean Water Act have brought the Red Cedar River to one of its healthiest states.
There has been a reduction in the amount of raw waste entering the river. Even with controversies surrounding MSU research farms' improper drainage systems shown to cause increased E. coli levels in a creek draining into the Red Cedar, the state of the river is mostly good. E. coli bacteria can cause serious illness.
"Actually, in terms of Red Cedar River water quality, the stretch around MSU has been meeting water quality standards, with the exception of combined sewers," said Megan McMahon, an environmental quality analyst for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
But even as most agree on the general healthy state of the river, spring rains can make sewers overflow with raw sewage. Non-point sources of pollution, such as runoff from parking lots and rooftops, still are polluting the waterway that winds through campus and feeds indirectly into major U.S. waterways. To solve this endless problem of non-point source pollution, many are working to edu cate the public responsible for the pollution.
Storm-water management
According to East Lansing city officials, there is only one surviving combined sewer, located near the former East Lansing Wastewater Treatment Plant on Kalamazoo Street, south of Bailey Hall. The nearly 8-foot pipes can drain raw sewage in the event of a water surge incapable of being handled by the new treatment plant.
In response to polluted watersheds such as the Red Cedar, Phase II of the Clean Water Act addressed communities smaller than 100,000. In 1999, Phase II called for small municipalities to work on storm-water management plans with other communities in the watershed.
In the Red Cedar River watershed, a storm-water management plan meant eradicating some point sources of pollution, such as the combined sewers installed in the pre-Clean Water Act era.
From a storm-water management plan came MSU-Water, a four-year $1.4-million project to assess pressing issues facing the Red Cedar and how it might be managed.
John Hesse, a retired adjunct faculty member in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Bailey Scholars Program, was chairman of the health subcommittee of MSU-Water and said, even a year ago, the Red Cedar had more raw sewage entering its banks than it does now.
Last year, he found six outfall points draining into the river that consistently showed "elevated levels" of E. coli - at least following rainfall when large amounts of water overexerts the East Lansing Wastewater Treatment Plant, sending raw sewage to mix with storm water into the river.
A 36-inch pipe behind the bus stop located on Michigan Avenue, just west of the Beal Street entrance to MSU's campus, drained raw sewage from a building not connected properly to a sewer system, Hesse said. The almost 30-foot channel created from the pipe's outflow can still be seen, and the area showed extremely elevated levels of E. coli.
Hesse said water tests showed 2 million parts per 100 milliliters. Water is deemed safe for swimming when E. coli counts are less than 200 parts per 100 milliliters.
Another pipe behind the Kellogg Center's parking ramp, visible from the bridge leading into ramp, was one of the unfixed combined sewers draining raw waste. The pipe was found when the river's water level was low. Hesse said MSU researchers took samples and figured out it was overflowing from the main sewer line taking the raw waste to the wastewater treatment plant.
He said they sealed off the overflow hole where the waste was leaking in the pipe, and fixed other similar instances of raw sewage discharges.
East Lansing has been working to fix combined sewers in a $32-million project scheduled for completion in 2006, after the last sewer near the Brody Complex is reconstructed. Large cranes and construction fences can be seen there now.
Todd Sneathen, director of East Lansing's Department of Public Works, said raw sewage combined with storm water flowed into the Red Cedar twice this year. In the two years prior it happened once, he said.
Good enough to eat
Almost all sources involved with the river say one thing should be made clear for residents and students: The river is actually in mostly good health. Even those critical of raw sewage discharges, such as those from combined sewers, say this urban river is in good shape.
"Almost every class finds good to excellent water quality," Hesse said about his classes that sampled the water and tested for contaminants.
Hesse said MSU-Water data shows the river meets swimming quality at least 75 percent of the time, and it meets partial body contact standards 84 percent of the time, casting aside notions the river is harmful to fall into.
Hesse said the water quality index in the river, which indicates good to excellent water quality, bodes well for him because he regularly fishes in the river.
He said he's pulled out small and large-mouth bass, rock bass, northern pike and carp all within a mile of campus. He added that in a 2000-2001 study, 10 northern pike all more than 24 inches and up to 32 inches were caught.
Comparing mercury levels, Hesse said fish in the Red Cedar are healthier than in lakes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
"The fish are safe to eat," he said.
Public pollution
For as much bacteria and waste that enters the river through point-source pollution, or direct lines of waste, countless more comes from non-point sources, such as parking lot pollution runoff, or runoff from the farms south of MSU's campus.
MSU and East Lansing city officials involved with the Red Cedar say the urban river is polluted by everyone in the watershed.
"Non-point source pollution involves everyone," said environmental analyst McMahon.
McMahon pointed to possible solutions to the Red Cedar pollution as easy as picking up pet waste, making sure garbage cans are covered and picking up litter. These examples of pollution, she said, lead to high bacteria counts in the river when rainfalls carry contaminants through storm water drains.
E. coli counts in the river fluctuate with rainfall because it carries waste into the water, but data show during most of 2004, high bacteria counts were not a problem. On Sept. 14, E. coli counts averaged 193.3 parts per 100 milliliters in samples from locations on Hagadorn Road, Kalamazoo Street and Farm Lane.
However fluctuations occur, and just the week before, on Sept. 7, samples averaged 3,119 parts per 100 milliliters, more than 15 times the safe swimmable range.
Even though the population surrounding MSU isn't increasing, McMahon said housing units are, making education about river pollution more important because "you can't legislate individual behaviors."
Tom Grover, environmental compliance officer in the MSU Office of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Safety, serves basically to monitor the Red Cedar River. Grover said he agreed heavy rainfalls are the river's biggest pollution problem because of what is carried into the waters.
"Actually the river is in better health than most people know, but because of the turbidity due to agriculture runoff, it's murky in color," he said. "It doesn't mean the river is polluted."
