The Story of the Upper Subwatershed Advisory Group

In 1985, the state of Michigan adopted the Rouge River Basin Strategy in response to public concerns. A key element in this strategy was the development of a plan to cleanup the river - a Rouge River Remedial Action Plan (Rouge River RAP). The original Rouge River RAP was completed in 1989 consistent with the commitments made by the states, provinces, and two federal governments as part of a Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. This international agreement signed by the United States and Canada identified 42 pollution "hot spots" or Areas of Concern (AOCs) in the Great Lakes basin that needed attention. The Rouge River was one of the AOCs listed.

Rouge River Remedial Action Plan (Rouge River RAP)

The original Rouge River RAP defined an ambitious 20-year program of actions needed to protect the public health and to make substantial progress to restore the impaired uses of the river. It focused on controlling the most easily regulated sources of pollution to the river, namely large industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges. At the time, the full cost of cleanup was estimated at $900 million dollars. Subsequent updates of the original RAP indicate that the full cost to restore the river is much higher.

In 1994, under the guidance of the Rouge RAP Advisory Council (RRAC), the committee established to prepare the Rouge River RAP, a revised 1994 Rouge River Remedial Action Plan was published. This report outlined the considerable progress that had been made in addressing major pollution sources in the river and outlined the additional steps that would be needed to restore uses that the updated report still indicated were impaired. The 1994 report documented the contributions of the Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project (Rouge Project) in accomplishing many of the objectives outlined in the original 1989 Rouge River RAP. The RRAC, under MDEQ guidance, is currently reviewing information for preparation of a new revision of the Rouge River RAP.

Rouge Project

In 1992, Wayne County was awarded the first of several United States Environmental Protection Agency grants to support the Rouge Project. The mission of the Rouge Project is to demonstrate effective solutions to water quality problems facing urbanized watersheds that can provide guidance to municipalities across the nation that face similar problems.

In addition to providing several hundred millions of dollars in matching grants to communities to help construct separated sewers and retention basins to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the Rouge Project has funded pilot projects by governmental units and non-profit organizations that demonstrate how other sources of pollution can be controlled. A part of the Rouge Project has also included extensive monitoring of the water quality and related aquatic habitat of the river to measure progress and pinpoint areas that need further attention.

In the early 1990s, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan court facilitated a resolution to the state ordered correction of CSOs that resulted in a phased approach in which the responsible local agencies would be allowed to demonstrate cost effective alternatives to capture and treat these discharges. With early reports from the Rouge Project that the control of CSOs alone would not address all the pollution problems in the river, the federal court urged the 48 local public agencies within the Rouge River watershed to adopt a more comprehensive approach. In response to the court's concerns, a group of local agencies working within the Rouge Project proposed a watershed approach to the court that involved development of a new regulatory framework for the management of storm water and certain other pollution sources. The federal court encouraged the communities to pursue this approach, which was later embraced by the MDEQ when it adopted the voluntary watershed-based general storm water permit in 1997. The U.S. EPA subsequently endorsed the state's general storm water permit indicating that it would meet at least the initial requirements under the federal phase II storm water regulations.

Voluntary General Storm Water Permit

The MDEQ adopted an innovative approach to the regulation of storm water discharges from publicly controlled separate storm water conveyances that was modeled after an approach recommended by public agencies within the Rouge River watershed. This unique regulatory approach requires the formation of subwatershed areas where communities and other public agencies responsible for storm water work cooperatively to develop and implement plans to address sources of pollution.

Finally, the Upper SWAG...

The Upper Subwatershed is one of seven groups formed within the Rouge River watershed. The Upper Rouge Subwatershed Advisory Group (Upper SWAG) was formed in response to the interest of several communities and public agencies in pursuing the voluntary, MDEQ General Storm Water Permit based upon a model generated by local government agencies participating in the Rouge Project. Several communities and public agencies had participated in a Rouge Project pilot study on the Bell Branch and Tarabusi Creek in a portion of the Upper Rouge Subwatershed.

That earlier group produced a draft report titled, Management Study of the Bell Branch and Tarabusi Creek Subwatershed, in 1997 prior to MDEQ's adoption of the General Storm Water Permit in July of 1997. Members of the original Bell Branch and Tarabusi Creek study group (i.e., Wayne County Department of Environment, Oakland County Drain Commissioner, Redford and Northville townships, the cities of Livonia and Farmington Hills, and the Michigan Department of Transportation) reassembled in 1998. They extended invitations to all public agencies that were eligible for coverage under the General Storm Water Permit within the Upper Subwatershed. Commerce and West Bloomfield townships, and the cities of Novi and Farmington joined with the original group of public agencies to form the Upper Subwatershed Advisory Group. In addition, various county agency representatives joined from both Wayne and Oakland counties. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and RRAC both provide advisors to the Upper Subwatershed Advisory Group.

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Please address all comments and suggestions about the contents of this Web page to rougeweb@co.wayne.mi.us.

The Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project is funded, in part, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Grants #XP995743-01, -02, -03, -04, -05, -06, -08 and C-264000-01.