Watershed Restoration Projects

• Brief Summary
• Combined Sewer Overflow Demonstration Projects
• Nonpoint Source Best Management Practices
• Newburgh Lake Restoration (contaminated sediment restoration)
• Inkster Constructed Wetlands Project

The Rouge Project recognizes the importance of involving local communities and agencies in the restoration of the Rouge River. One way the Rouge Project is involving local communities is by providing funding for local projects. Projects from throughout the watershed have been selected to receive funding to demonstrate various watershed management techniques. These techniques have been categorized into thirteen groups.

Community based projects focused on the following topics:

• Geographic Information Systems
• Illicit Discharge Elimination
• Public Involvement and Education
• Pollution Prevention
• Recreation and Habitat
• Septage/Waste Management
• Streambank Stabilization
• Storm Water Management
• Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO)
• Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO)
• Construction, Retrofit and Restoration of Detention/Sedimentation Basins
• Control of Street Runoff & Pollutants
• Erosion Control Projects
• Innovative Land Development
• Ordinances, Management Plans, and Institutional Projects
• Wetlands Projects

The early focus of the Rouge Project was on the control of CSOs in the older urban core portion of the downstream areas of the Rouge Watershed. As a finite number of point source CSO discharges could be identified and responsibility for each defined, the traditional regulatory approach of issuing NPDES permits mandating corrective action worked relatively well. However, additional monitoring of the river showed that the other sources of pollution such as storm water runoff, discharges from illicit connections, and discharges from failed on-site septic systems, needed to be controlled before full restoration of the river would be achieved throughout the watershed.

Based upon what was learned, the focus of the Rouge Project became more holistic to consider the impacts from all sources of pollution and other use impairments in receiving waters by using the watershed management approach. A more holistic approach that considers the impacts from all sources of pollution was needed to restore the river. The use of the watershed approach therefore has emerged as the most cost-effective and logical approach to water resource management in the Rouge Watershed and elsewhere.

It was this watershed approach that led to the funding and implementation various watershed management and restoration techniques.

The purpose of these descriptions is to provide a general idea of the activities underway. Changes may occur in projects as they progress; however, you can contact the agency contact person for additional, up-to-date information.

To learn more about the Community Grants Program click here.

Other Sources of Grant Funding: Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection

Please address all comments and suggestions about the contents of this Web page to DOEHelp@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, -09 and C-264000-01.