{"id":25056,"date":"2026-05-29T06:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=871757"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:48:07","slug":"pollution-and-forever-chemicals-threaten-health-of-michigans-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/pollution-and-forever-chemicals-threaten-health-of-michigans-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution and Forever Chemicals Threaten Health of Michigan\u2019s Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-pollution-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2026\/05\/29\/871757.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2026\/05\/29\/871757.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Michigan may be known as the Great Lakes state, but most of its residents have a river to thank for their hometown\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust looking at settlement patterns in Michigan tells us a lot about how important our rivers are,\u201d said Lisa Dechano-Cook, a Western Michigan University geographer who co-wrote the book \u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kalamazoo-River-Lisa-M-Dechano-Cook\/dp\/1540235491\">Kalamazoo River<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"chemicals,pollution\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou wanted to be near water, especially running water, so that you could get from place to place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When combined, Michigan\u2019s 76,000 miles of rivers, creeks and streams have a shoreline 46 times the length of Michigan\u2019s Great Lakes coast. That means in most of the state, the nearest water body is more likely a river than one of those big lakes.<\/p>\n<p>Even some of the state\u2019s most well-known inland lakes \u2014 from Oakland County\u2019s Kent Lake to central Michigan\u2019s Lake Ovid \u2014 are actually rivers that have been slowed, deepened and widened by dams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really don\u2019t think (rivers)get the proper credit and thought,\u201d said Melissa DeSimone, executive director of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.<\/p>\n<p>While Michigan\u2019s rivers provide drinking water for millions and an abundance of recreational opportunities, they also struggle with widespread E. coli and PFAS pollution, development pressure, legacy contamination that makes fish unsafe to eat and a host of other challenges.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, Bridge Michigan will embark upon a monthslong exploration of the state\u2019s rivers, from the recreational opportunities they provide to the struggles they face.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-topics=\"chemicals,pollution\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>So why the focus?<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">History of rivers<\/h4>\n<p>When Dechano-Cook thinks about rivers, her geographer\u2019s mind gravitates to the way they\u2019ve shaped Michigan\u2019s landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Glacial rivers deposited sand and gravel to form long, narrow ridges on the Earth, called eskers. In other areas, flowing water carved into the land, creating vast depressions like the Kalamazoo River Valley.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to imagine what Michigan would be like without them,\u201d DeChano said of the state\u2019s rivers.<\/p>\n<p>Rivers have also played important roles in the state\u2019s culture and industry.<\/p>\n<p>Native American creation stories document how humans settled in the Great Lakes region <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interlochenpublicradio.org\/show\/points-north\/2022-09-30\/the-food-that-grows-on-water\">primarily because<\/a> a key food source \u2014 wild rice \u2014 grew in the local rivers and lakes.<\/p>\n<p>As Europeans arrived, they built riverside settlements for easy access to food, water and water-based transportation across what was then a densely forested region.<\/p>\n<p>They later used rivers to raze those forests, with lumbermen floating logs downstream to water-powered sawmills. The eskers were mined to build roads. Rivers were dammed to produce electricity or regulate water levels. And factories began to crowd riverbanks, where flowing water made for convenient shipping and waste disposal.<\/p>\n<p>All of it came with consequences for the environment.<\/p>\n<p>By the mid-1900s, many Michigan rivers were dangerously polluted with industrial waste. In others, native fish species went extinct after logging and dams destroyed their habitat. Wild rice beds became scarce. A handful of dirt scooped from the Detroit River would come up black with oil, while a man <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=19njulwJUci-6fFIvX8OkMVwyaRJSKXcIscSju3twx1M&amp;font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2&amp;height=650\">died<\/a> of leptospirosis, also known as rat fever, after ingesting water from the polluted River Rouge in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe regulations were few and far between,\u201d said Robert Burns, who grew up in Grosse Ile in the 1960s and 1970s and has served as the Detroit <a href=\"https:\/\/modeldmedia.com\/bobburn\/\">riverkeeper<\/a> for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>Few people wanted to spend time on the water. And if they did, privatized industrial shorelines posed a barrier to access.<\/p>\n<p>Citizens began mounting public pressure campaigns, urging lawmakers to address the nation\u2019s water pollution concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Congress heeded the call in 1972, passing the Clean Water Act that requires industry to better contain its waste. Decades of restoration efforts followed, with hundreds of millions spent to remove contaminated sediment and reclaim shorelines from Muskegon to Marquette for use by fish, wildlife and humans.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Recreational opportunities<\/h4>\n<p>Now, when the spring walleye and silver bass are running, hundreds of fishing boats bob in the Detroit River\u2019s teal water. In summer, Belle Isle\u2019s swimming beaches often reach capacity by midday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCleaning up in the water and making more access points to the water have been key catalysts for showing people this wonderful resource that we\u2019ve always had but that was underappreciated,\u201d said Harry Jones, who teaches kids to sail as president of the Detroit Community Sailing Center.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a story echoed across the state: As Michigan\u2019s rivers have begun to heal, new opportunities for outdoor recreation have emerged: Trophy pike fishing in the Kalamazoo River. Biking along the Huron. An effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/grandrapidswhitewater.org\/\">bring whitewater rafting<\/a> to the Grand.<\/p>\n<p>Farther afield from the state\u2019s population centers, reforestation and dam removal efforts have restored water quality and reconnected habitat to such a degree that species managers believe it may be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/egle\/newsroom\/mi-environment\/2025\/06\/03\/artic-grayling\">possible to revive Arctic grayling<\/a>, a fish that disappeared from Michigan\u2019s rivers nearly a century ago.<\/p>\n<p>Water-based recreation in Michigan has become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/dnr\/about\/economic-impact\">multi-billion-dollar industry<\/a>, though it\u2019s not clear how that breaks down between rivers and lakes. Rebecca Esselman, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council, is betting a massive chunk of it comes from rivers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost every Michigander, if they are reminiscing about their childhood or their experience with nature, they have a river story,\u201d Esselman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCatching crayfish or floating paper boats down a creek in a neighborhood park. Because there are so many rivers throughout the state, they are in our backyards and in our parks. They\u2019re engaged with in a very informal, playful way.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her organization commissioned a 2017 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrwc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Summary-Huron-River-Economic-Impact-web.pdf\">study<\/a> that found recreation on the Huron River alone brought in $53.5 million annually.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Challenges<\/h4>\n<p>Those numbers are a clarion call to protect the hard-fought gains Michigan rivers have made, DeSimone said.<\/p>\n<p>While the average Michigan river is healthier today than it was 50 years ago, unaddressed problems and emerging threats leave them at risk of backsliding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like we\u2019re always having to remediate and defend,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re on our back foot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite decades of political debate and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, the state has not fixed longstanding nutrient and E. coli pollution caused by intensive agriculture, leaking septic systems and municipal sewer overflows. Roughly half of Michigan\u2019s total river miles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/egle\/about\/organization\/water-resources\/glwarm\/e-coli-in-surface-waters\">exceed standards for safe swimming<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers have not heeded years of warnings about the decrepit condition of Michigan\u2019s dams and the state\u2019s lack of money or regulatory authority to speed repairs or removals. The result is increasingly frequent failure scares that threaten public safety and the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Michigan is just beginning to respond to more newly known hazards, such as the PFAS \u201cforever chemicals\u201d that have sullied hundreds of Michigan water bodies, making <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgemi.com\/michigan-environment-watch\/new-pfas-guidelines-spark-more-do-not-eat-warnings-michigan-fish\/\">fish unsafe to eat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>From his perch on the Detroit River, Burns still feels optimistic. He believes that, with another decade of work and a billion or so dollars, it\u2019s possible to clean up the contaminated sediment that is hindering the river\u2019s comeback.<\/p>\n<p>If Michigan can avoid re-polluting the river, he said, it may soon be eligible for removal from the US and Canada\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/great-lakes-aocs\/detroit-river-aoc\">Areas of Concern<\/a> list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re never going to get the river back to what it was pre-settlement,\u201d he said. \u201cAll in all, I think we\u2019re headed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"copyright-notice lite\">Copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/div>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/michigan\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Michigan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/pollution\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Pollution<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"871757\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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