Waterfront Advisory Committee
 

St. Clair Shores Waterfront Advisory Committee homepage

Mission Statement:  Monitors, coordinates and promotes clean, safe usage of Lake St. Clair

Appointed by:  Mayor and Council

Term:  No term

Members:  7

Core Members:

Resource Members:   

Meetings: The Waterfront Advisory Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month (except December) at 6:30 p.m.  in the MacHarg room of the library.

The Waterfront Advisory Committee, like other volunteer committees in St. Clair Shores, commits our resources, time and energy toward making our community a better place to live.  Specifically, our goals are directed toward promoting better water quality, a cleaner lake and greater public awareness concerning our waterfront stewardship.  Listed below are some projects, achievements and future plans.  Please note that schools, residents, businesses and local government are our partners and we work with them and for them on all of our activities.

Summary of Clean Water Initiatives:

• "Lake Safe" lawn fertilizer sticker program - Created a "lake safe" sticker to be used on lawn fertilizers that meet the following criteria: 1.) contains slow release nitrogen 2.) contains no pesticides or herbicides 3.) contains no phosphorus or ratio of nitrogen-to-phosphorus is 5:1 or greater.  Sticker is used in all St. Clair Shores retail stores.

• Clean Boats, Clean Waters Program - involved in the Michigan Sea Grant efforts to stop the spread of invasive aquatic species in the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair through contact with boaters at the boat launches in St. Clair Shores.

• Storm Drain Stenciling: "No Dumping - Drains To Lake" - Storm drain stenciling is being done by schools, boy scouts, homeowner groups, and residents throughout St. Clair Shores.

• Wood Duck Habitat Restoration - Working with businesses, students and residents for a common goal:  to bring back the wood duck to S.C.S.

• Water Quality Education Program - Providing water quality testing equipment, financial support, expertise, and volunteer participation to S.C.S. middle schools to test water quality and macro invertebrate identification at local beaches.

• Nautical Coast Cleanup - Participated in planning, coordination, and supervision of beach cleanups since it's inception in 1996.

• Making environmental information available to residents - DEQ Publication "Your Lake and You" 800 copies, DNR Publication "Michigan Boating Guide" 1,500 copies, and many other government flyers and publications made available to the community.

• Communications with politicians - Voicing our environmental concerns to federal, state, and local politicians through letters, telephone calls and email.

• St. Clair Shores Golf Course Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship - Involved with golf course by constructing 3 wood duck nesting boxes, 20 bluebird nest boxes, and 5 bat houses to help their efforts to qualify under this program coordinated by the MDA, MDEQ, Michigan State University and the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation. 

• Donation of water quality materials to library and schools - Donating books, materials, publications, videocassettes and CDs to the library and schools.

• Networking with other environmental groups - Exchanging ideas and solutions to local environmental problems with other groups like the Clinton River Watershed Council, River of Life, Macomb Water Quality Board, Clean Water Action and Channel Keepers

• Seminars for the community - "Lake St. Clair Symposium", hosted by S.C.S. and Michigan Sea Grant, speakers from U.S. and Canada; "Practical Steps to Protect Lake St. Clair", speakers from MSU Extension and Michigan Sea Grant; "Mayor's Corner", cable TV featuring non-point source pollution - what residents could do in the community.

• Protecting Fish Habitat brochure - Generating a guide for fishermen and boaters on how to protect the lake and fish habitat.   Ten thousand copies were printed and distributed to all boat launches, marinas, and waterfront homes in S.C.S. and around the lake.

• Recommendations to city/county government - Creating a wetland at the S.C.S. Country Club to filter and store storm water.  Information boards at public boat launches.  Retro-fit at the Chapaton Pump Station to alleviate impact of overflows and fish kills.  Creating buffer zones to alleviate non-source point pollution from city streets and parking lots.  Make rain barrels available to city residents at a discount.  Response to microbial source tracking study of Blossom Heath beach.

• Involvement in workshops, seminars and task forces - Marina Pollution Prevention task force, River of Life study groups, MSU Extension work groups and GLEP, SOLEC96, Great Lakes Commission seminars, Michigan Groundwater Stewardship program, Clinton River Watershed workgroups, the Michigan Sea Grant Performance Assessment Team, Department of Natural Resources/Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seminars.

• Water Quality Education Tour - Tour of Mt. Clemens drinking water and wastewater treatment plants and Chapaton storm water retention basin plus a cruise of the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair.  Water quality testing is performed during the cruise.

• Web site access - For more details, visit our website at www.angelfire.com/mi4/scswateradvisory

• Non-source point pollution flyer - The brochure contains facts about Lake St. Clair, the source of your drinking water.  The brochure is also a guide for pollution prevention at home.  The brochure is available at the S.C.S Library and at all City offices.

• Bat Conservation - Putting up bat houses is a way of protecting this valuable natural resource.  The committee is also working with John F. Kennedy Middle School on their bat conservation project.

•  I-94 Expressway Entrance/Exit Ramp Clean-up Detail - Working with Macomb County's "Adopt-a-Highway" program.  Lake pollution starts at inland locations.  Nine, Ten and Eleven Mile Road entrance/exit ramps have been targeted as the committee's adopted highways.

For more information about the Waterfront Advisory Committee, please call (586)  Curt Dumas 445-5363 
or visit the St. Clair Shores Waterfront Advisory Committee homepage.