Hamilton Reef
10-11-2004, 09:05 PM
Fight for river monitoring continues
http://www.thetimesherald.com/news/stories/20041011/localnews/1392860.html
Despite a financial setback, local environmental leaders still hope to add chemical monitoring equipment to water plants along the St. Clair River.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a $250,000 request in the state Department of Environmental Quality budget to install chemical-testing equipment at the Algonac water treatment plant.
The millions of southeast Michigan residents who get their drinking water from the river and Lake St. Clair instead may find smaller, cheaper equipment on multiple plants.
The Macomb/St. Clair Inter-County Watershed Management Advisory Group is looking at financing options to install smaller, $50,000 units at plants.
The group will meet later this month to investigate the issue.
Now, no real-time monitoring equipment exists to detect chemicals from Sarnia's sprawling Chemical Valley.
That worries residents such as Martha Byrne of St. Clair, who gets her drinking water from a water plant on the river.
There have been two significant petrochemical spills into the river from Chemical Valley since August 2003, prompting several water-plant shutdowns but no reported illness.
"It's not fun living across from all those plants in Canada," Byrne said.
"I won't even go swimming ... it's not like it used to be."
The new equipment wouldn't be able to tell environmentalists how much of what chemical is in the river, as the more expensive equipment intended.
It would provide quick notification something is in the river.
"It would tell us we've detected something, now we need to shut down and get some analysis on what we're detecting," said Eric Barnowski, Ira Township water plant superintendent and a member of the advisory group.
If the equipment would be possible for all plants, Barnowski said greater chances may exist for state funding.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/news/stories/20041011/localnews/1392860.html
Despite a financial setback, local environmental leaders still hope to add chemical monitoring equipment to water plants along the St. Clair River.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a $250,000 request in the state Department of Environmental Quality budget to install chemical-testing equipment at the Algonac water treatment plant.
The millions of southeast Michigan residents who get their drinking water from the river and Lake St. Clair instead may find smaller, cheaper equipment on multiple plants.
The Macomb/St. Clair Inter-County Watershed Management Advisory Group is looking at financing options to install smaller, $50,000 units at plants.
The group will meet later this month to investigate the issue.
Now, no real-time monitoring equipment exists to detect chemicals from Sarnia's sprawling Chemical Valley.
That worries residents such as Martha Byrne of St. Clair, who gets her drinking water from a water plant on the river.
There have been two significant petrochemical spills into the river from Chemical Valley since August 2003, prompting several water-plant shutdowns but no reported illness.
"It's not fun living across from all those plants in Canada," Byrne said.
"I won't even go swimming ... it's not like it used to be."
The new equipment wouldn't be able to tell environmentalists how much of what chemical is in the river, as the more expensive equipment intended.
It would provide quick notification something is in the river.
"It would tell us we've detected something, now we need to shut down and get some analysis on what we're detecting," said Eric Barnowski, Ira Township water plant superintendent and a member of the advisory group.
If the equipment would be possible for all plants, Barnowski said greater chances may exist for state funding.