Ecorse River residents received notices from the Wayne County Drainage Commissioner’s office earlier this year about upcoming work on the river banks. “Work may include tree removal…” said the notices, signed by Elmeka Steele, the county’s drainage commissioner.
What happened next shocked many residents: the deforestation all Trees in 15 foot wide strips along both river banks.
“Many of the trees they’re cutting down are huge trees, 40 to 60 feet tall; I’d say there are hundreds,” said Harry Wiume, who lives on Demean Street in Melvindale, a stone’s throw from the Ecorse River. “They’ve met with some of the property owners, but the property owners weren’t informed that it was going to be a clearcut.”
Work began in May at Council Point Park in Lincoln Park and continued beyond Pepper Park in Ecorse. Similar work as part of the North Branch Ecorse Creek Drain Maintenance Project is expected to take place along the river — also known as Ecorse Creek because of its narrower flow in places — about 16 miles north to Dearborn Heights. The hope is to alleviate chronic flooding problems in the Dearborn Heights area by improving the flow of the river, which serves as an outflow to the Detroit River for a number of communities in the region.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans allocated $10 million for the sewer improvement project. The county’s funds come from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The riverfront work is intended to “remove obstructions and restore maintenance access routes along the sewer,” Steele wrote in a June 18 email to Jeremy Richardson, an official with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s Division of Water Resources. Richardson had contacted Steele’s office earlier this month to inquire about the project in response to several citizen inquiries to EGLE.
No permits required
“Depending on the availability of funding, the project may also include bank erosion repair and protection and sediment removal,” Steele added.
Due to exemptions in state environmental law for maintenance work on certain sewers by sewer commissions, the North Branch Ecorse Creek project does not require an environmental impact study, a review of potential impacts to fish, bird, bat, waterfowl or wildlife habitat along the river, or a discharge permit to the Detroit River from state or federal environmental agencies.
“They don’t need an environmental impact study because they don’t need a permit to do the work because they’re the sewer authority and they’re doing maintenance on their easement property,” said Deborah Richmond, a Demean Street resident. “Since they don’t need a permit, a permit can’t be denied.”
“How did the Wastewater Commission become the most powerful institution in the country?”
Greg Lockwood lives on the Allen Park side of Demean Street, and the river flows through the backyard of his property. He has spent years planting trees, putting up statues in the garden and creating walking paths to beautify his piece of nature in an otherwise urban, industrial environment. Now he wonders how much he will lose.
“We have been here for 28 years,” he said. “In that time, the stream has widened by about 2.44 meters.”
“Their clearcutting will improve drainage, and improving drainage will cause the land to wash away even faster. … I will continue to lose property, and they will move their 15-foot-wide easement closer and closer to my house.”
Severe flooding triggered call for work
The North Branch Ecorse Creek Drain was created in 1861 as a county drainage system. It serves as a stormwater drain for nine towns in Wayne County. The drain flows through Ecorse, Melvindale, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Dearborn Heights, Romulus, and Westland and eventually empties into the Detroit River.
Flooding and overflows have occurred along the drain over the years, but it was a major rain event on May 21, 2004 that sparked calls for drain improvements. That event, which saw more than four inches of rain fall in one day, caused the creek to rise nearly six feet in three hours. More than 1,500 homes in Dearborn Heights were affected by severe flooding. City officials then petitioned the Wayne County Drain Commissioner to maintain and improve the North Branch drain.
“The Wayne County Drain Commissioner is responsible for performing sewer maintenance under the Michigan Drain Code of 1956, as amended,” said Penelope Filyo, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Department of Public Services.
Steele’s office expects tree removal to occur on “approximately 11 miles” of the drain in Ecorse, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, Allen Park and Dearborn Heights, Filyo said.
“While we understand that trees are of particular importance to many landowners, trees must be removed to provide access to the drain, to remove logs and debris to improve drainage, and to reduce future drain blockages.”
After the trees are cut down, the stumps are left in place and the area is reseeded and covered with grass. The stumps are then spot-treated with herbicides to prevent regrowth – “only on the stumps and not in the water,” Filyo said.
Will industrial pollutants enter rivers?
“They said they would maintain and mow the lawn they laid,” said Jennifer Albanys, a resident of Demean Street on the Allen Park side with properties on both sides of the Ecorse River. “How are you going to mow it when the stumps are several feet high?
“It’s never maintained. The Wayne County Drain Commission? I’ve never seen any of them out here in 24 years.”
Wiume said mink, fox, herons and egrets are commonly seen in the area along the river. He also noted that green infrastructure and rain gardens are being created and promoted in many parts of southeast Michigan to slow runoff and help naturally filter out pollution before it enters waterways.
“This is an industrial area with a lot of pollutants,” he said. “Where is it all going to go? It’s going to flow off all this land and into the creek, faster than before.”
The nonprofit organization Friends of the Detroit River is listed as a partner in the North Branch Ecorse Creek maintenance project.
“We understand this is a complex issue and we are doing our best to achieve the best possible outcome,” said Friends Executive Director Tricia Blicharski.
For more information, visit www.nbedc.com.
Contact Keith Matheny: [email protected].
