Photo by Greg Chandler
A portion of the Macatawa River at the Geerlings Farm Park in Zeeland Township. The ODC Network is asking both the township and city of Zeeland for funding support for the next phase of its Project Clarity campaign to clean up the Macatawa Watershed. The initiative has already resulted in reduced phosphorus levels in Lake Macatawa, but more work is needed to bring nutrient levels in line with state standards.
A portion of the Macatawa River at the Geerlings Farm Park in Zeeland Township. The ODC Network is asking both the township and city of Zeeland for funding support for the next phase of its Project Clarity campaign to clean up the Macatawa Watershed. The initiative has already resulted in reduced phosphorus levels in Lake Macatawa, but more work is needed to bring nutrient levels in line with state standards.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A local environmental organization is seeking funding support from the city of Zeeland and Zeeland Township toward the next phase of its effort to improve water quality in the Macatawa Watershed area.
The ODC Network gave presentations to the City Council Aug. 17 and the Township Board Aug. 18 on the third phase of Project Clarity, a community-wide effort to improve water quality in the Macatawa Watershed and on Lake Macatawa. The nonprofit is asking both municipalities to make an annual commitment of $20,000 over the next five years to support the initiative.
Neither governing body has voted to support such a contribution, although Township Board members by consensus have shown they will support the campaign. Zeeland Mayor Rick Van Dorp says the City Council will have further discussion and possibly take a vote on whether to support Project Clarity at an upcoming meeting.
Project Clarity dates back to 2012, when the ODC Network teamed up with Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute and Hope College’s Global Water Research Institute to document the water quality in Lake Macatawa and the Macatawa Watershed area.
“The two biggest issues in our watershed are sediment runoff and nutrient runoff,” ODC Chief Executive Officer Travis Williams said. “Specifically, phosphorus is a nutrient of concern that we have.”
The Macatawa Watershed is a 175-square-mile area of land that drains and feeds into Lake Macatawa. It takes in nine municipalities, including the city of Zeeland and Zeeland Township. The watershed includes Lake Macatawa, the Macatawa River and nearly 700 miles of rivers, streams and ditches.
The communities in the watershed area are under a directive from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), dating back to the late 1990s, to reduce phosphorus levels in the area and running off into Lake Macatawa.
“We, at the time, were considered the most-polluted or dirtiest watershed in the state,” Williams said.
The ODC Network raised $12 million, with about 75 percent of the funding coming from the private sector, to launch Project Clarity. Since then, the organization has used a multi-faceted approach to reduce the amount of runoff ending up in Lake Macatawa through actions such as restoring wetlands, educational programs and instituting best management practices for both farmers and those living in urban areas of the watershed.
“We had to address the inputs before we can address the lake, because Lake Macatawa itself is a symptom of the greater problem, which is our watershed as a whole … the lake is the symptom that we all see,” Williams said.
Project Clarity’s efforts have made a difference to date, reducing the amount of sediment entering Lake Macatawa by 46,000 tons each year and phosphorus by 40,000 pounds per year. Phosphorus levels on the lake have fallen more than 60 percent, Williams said.
“Historically, Lake Mac’s phosphorus levels hovered between 125 and 200+ (parts per billion), but recent years have brought that down to 75–125 ppb. Project Clarity is clearly working, and we’re continuing our research and restoration efforts to help bring the lake back to its natural state,” Williams wrote in an email to the Zeeland Record.
One of the major reasons for the reduced runoff are conservation practices that have been adopted by 65 farms in the watershed region, covering 36,000 acres. Some of those practices include no-till farming and cover cropping, Williams told township leaders.
“We formed an agricultural board, (we) empowered the agricultural community to evaluate applications people put in … on their farms,” he said. “We let farmers help farmers solve the problem, rather than people like me who are not farmers try to tell a farmer what to do, which doesn’t work.”
Phosphorus levels on Lake Macatawa still remain above the EGLE recommended standard of 50 parts per billion, Williams said.
ODC Network is seeking $7.65 million in funding for the new phase of Project Clarity, to address five main goals:
• Sustainable funding ($250,000): Establishing a sustainable funding mechanism to support long-term water quality improvements in the watershed. Possible mechanisms include establishing a lake association or lake improvement board.
“Most of our communities that have lakes … have associations or lake boards where they collect dues from the community around it, and then those resources build up over time and they have those resources to invest in the watershed,” Williams said.
• In-lake treatment ($3.25 million): Implement treatment in Lake Macatawa to accelerate water quality improvement in the lake.
• Prioritized best management practices ($2.9 million): Promote targeted best management practices to reduce runoff – including agricultural practices, stormwater management, stream and habitat restoration and wetland expansion.
• Outreach and education ($400,000): develop and implement a coordinated education and outreach strategy across the entire watershed region.
• Maintenance and monitoring ($850,000): Expand maintenance and monitoring to sustain the impact of recent restoration efforts and ensure long-term improvements in water quality.
To date, Williams says the ODC Network has raised about $2.5 million toward its goal. The city of Holland and Holland Township have each agreed to contribute $50,000 a year for the next five years to support Project Clarity, while Park Township board members are expected to vote soon on making a similar contribution. The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area has awarded a $40,000 grant to ODC for the initiative.
Township Board members seem willing to support the project.
“Clearly, Zeeland Township is a contributor to the problem,” Trustee Dave Barry said. “We have the capacity to address the problem locally. We value local decisions and local control … I think it’s a valuable conversation and I hope we take some type of action to say yes, we’re serious. If it’s a problem, we’re going to take care of it within our realm.”
Treasurer Melissa Veldheer agreed, noting that the township was not a financial contributor during the first phase of Project Clarity. Her son, a student at Hope College, was involved in recent sample collection efforts on Lake Macatawa.
“I don’t know why Zeeland Township didn’t do something the first time. I’m kind of embarrassed, hearing that’s where all the problem was coming from, that we didn’t do anything the first time,” Veldheer said. “I definitely think we need to do something this time.”
The board is expected to discuss how much of a contribution to make to the project at a future meeting, Supervisor Kerri Bosma said.
Zeeland Record
A local environmental organization is seeking funding support from the city of Zeeland and Zeeland Township toward the next phase of its effort to improve water quality in the Macatawa Watershed area.
The ODC Network gave presentations to the City Council Aug. 17 and the Township Board Aug. 18 on the third phase of Project Clarity, a community-wide effort to improve water quality in the Macatawa Watershed and on Lake Macatawa. The nonprofit is asking both municipalities to make an annual commitment of $20,000 over the next five years to support the initiative.
Neither governing body has voted to support such a contribution, although Township Board members by consensus have shown they will support the campaign. Zeeland Mayor Rick Van Dorp says the City Council will have further discussion and possibly take a vote on whether to support Project Clarity at an upcoming meeting.
Project Clarity dates back to 2012, when the ODC Network teamed up with Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute and Hope College’s Global Water Research Institute to document the water quality in Lake Macatawa and the Macatawa Watershed area.
“The two biggest issues in our watershed are sediment runoff and nutrient runoff,” ODC Chief Executive Officer Travis Williams said. “Specifically, phosphorus is a nutrient of concern that we have.”
The Macatawa Watershed is a 175-square-mile area of land that drains and feeds into Lake Macatawa. It takes in nine municipalities, including the city of Zeeland and Zeeland Township. The watershed includes Lake Macatawa, the Macatawa River and nearly 700 miles of rivers, streams and ditches.
The communities in the watershed area are under a directive from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), dating back to the late 1990s, to reduce phosphorus levels in the area and running off into Lake Macatawa.
“We, at the time, were considered the most-polluted or dirtiest watershed in the state,” Williams said.
The ODC Network raised $12 million, with about 75 percent of the funding coming from the private sector, to launch Project Clarity. Since then, the organization has used a multi-faceted approach to reduce the amount of runoff ending up in Lake Macatawa through actions such as restoring wetlands, educational programs and instituting best management practices for both farmers and those living in urban areas of the watershed.
“We had to address the inputs before we can address the lake, because Lake Macatawa itself is a symptom of the greater problem, which is our watershed as a whole … the lake is the symptom that we all see,” Williams said.
Project Clarity’s efforts have made a difference to date, reducing the amount of sediment entering Lake Macatawa by 46,000 tons each year and phosphorus by 40,000 pounds per year. Phosphorus levels on the lake have fallen more than 60 percent, Williams said.
“Historically, Lake Mac’s phosphorus levels hovered between 125 and 200+ (parts per billion), but recent years have brought that down to 75–125 ppb. Project Clarity is clearly working, and we’re continuing our research and restoration efforts to help bring the lake back to its natural state,” Williams wrote in an email to the Zeeland Record.
One of the major reasons for the reduced runoff are conservation practices that have been adopted by 65 farms in the watershed region, covering 36,000 acres. Some of those practices include no-till farming and cover cropping, Williams told township leaders.
“We formed an agricultural board, (we) empowered the agricultural community to evaluate applications people put in … on their farms,” he said. “We let farmers help farmers solve the problem, rather than people like me who are not farmers try to tell a farmer what to do, which doesn’t work.”
Phosphorus levels on Lake Macatawa still remain above the EGLE recommended standard of 50 parts per billion, Williams said.
ODC Network is seeking $7.65 million in funding for the new phase of Project Clarity, to address five main goals:
• Sustainable funding ($250,000): Establishing a sustainable funding mechanism to support long-term water quality improvements in the watershed. Possible mechanisms include establishing a lake association or lake improvement board.
“Most of our communities that have lakes … have associations or lake boards where they collect dues from the community around it, and then those resources build up over time and they have those resources to invest in the watershed,” Williams said.
• In-lake treatment ($3.25 million): Implement treatment in Lake Macatawa to accelerate water quality improvement in the lake.
• Prioritized best management practices ($2.9 million): Promote targeted best management practices to reduce runoff – including agricultural practices, stormwater management, stream and habitat restoration and wetland expansion.
• Outreach and education ($400,000): develop and implement a coordinated education and outreach strategy across the entire watershed region.
• Maintenance and monitoring ($850,000): Expand maintenance and monitoring to sustain the impact of recent restoration efforts and ensure long-term improvements in water quality.
To date, Williams says the ODC Network has raised about $2.5 million toward its goal. The city of Holland and Holland Township have each agreed to contribute $50,000 a year for the next five years to support Project Clarity, while Park Township board members are expected to vote soon on making a similar contribution. The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area has awarded a $40,000 grant to ODC for the initiative.
Township Board members seem willing to support the project.
“Clearly, Zeeland Township is a contributor to the problem,” Trustee Dave Barry said. “We have the capacity to address the problem locally. We value local decisions and local control … I think it’s a valuable conversation and I hope we take some type of action to say yes, we’re serious. If it’s a problem, we’re going to take care of it within our realm.”
Treasurer Melissa Veldheer agreed, noting that the township was not a financial contributor during the first phase of Project Clarity. Her son, a student at Hope College, was involved in recent sample collection efforts on Lake Macatawa.
“I don’t know why Zeeland Township didn’t do something the first time. I’m kind of embarrassed, hearing that’s where all the problem was coming from, that we didn’t do anything the first time,” Veldheer said. “I definitely think we need to do something this time.”
The board is expected to discuss how much of a contribution to make to the project at a future meeting, Supervisor Kerri Bosma said.
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