The Department of Natural Resources and Environment today awarded eight grants, totaling $247,795, to help universities, local governments and nonprofit organizations monitor the quality of Michigan's waters.

The recipients of these water quality monitoring grants are:

-Charter Township of Delhi - $21,557 to identify and prioritize sources and causes of pollutants in the Sycamore Creek section of the Red Cedar watershed and the Skinner Extension of the Grand River watershed. 

-Chippewa County Health Department - $23,000 to conduct E. coli monitoring of the St. Marys River to evaluate water quality conditions and to identify potential sources of contamination. 

-Clinton Conservation District - $29,235 to collect additional data and information for a stream bank erosion study in the Maple and Looking Glass rivers, tributaries to the Grand River.  The data will be used to determine a more accurate method for estimating and predicting stream bank recession rates and annual sediment loading. 

-Forum of Greater Kalamazoo - $47,779 to determine phosphorus dynamics in Morrow Lake, an impoundment of the Kalamazoo River upstream of Lake Allegan.  

-Glen Lake Association - $14,344 to assess the effects of increased human activity in the Glen Lake watershed by conducting a water quality monitoring program. 

-Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department - $34,000 to use an innovative technique to identify sources of E. coli in Arcadia and Bear Creeks in Kalamazoo County.

-Macatawa Area Coordinating Council - $50,442 to conduct forensic analyses of sediment samples collected from the Macatawa River watershed.  This information will be used to determine the origin of the sediment within the watershed. 

-Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay - $27,438 to develop and implement a sampling study to characterize the water quality in the Boardman River before, during and after the removal of three dams.  The data collected has potential applicability to other dam-removal projects throughout the state.

Funding for these grants was made available through the Clean Michigan Initiative-Clean Water Fund.     

Questions may be directed to Kay Edly, Surface Water Assessment Section, DNRE Water Resources Division, at 517-373-4633.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment is committed to the conservation, protection, management, accessible use and enjoyment of the state's environment, natural resources and related economic interests for current and future generations. Learn more at www.michgan.gov/dnre.

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