EMU's State of the Strait conference to focus on water quality

Sound land development practices were one of the takeaways from the biennial State of the Strait conference held at Eastern Michigan University last week. The theme of this year's gathering attended by about 200 researchers, government managers, students, and environmental and conservation organizations, was the usage of remote sensing (satellites and planes) and GIS (geographical information systems) to manage and monitor the health of the water and shoreline of the Huron-Erie corridor stretching from Lake Huron to Lake Erie.

"Land use in southeastern Michigan – that includes Washtenaw County – can influence the health of the Huron-Erie corridor, in particular the western basin of Lake Erie," says Steve Francoeur, an associate professor of biology at EMU.

While this year's conference was mainly aimed at invasive species and wildlife management along the corridor, Francoeur says, a presentation from Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) representatives focused on ways to minimize the contributions of impervious surfaces (such as roofing and pavement) to storm-water runoff.

"When you have impervious surfaces they tend to be industrial or residential, so you get more toxic runoff and that sort of thing," Francoeur says.

A potentially effective development strategy floated at the conference, Francoeur says, was disconnecting the eaves of buildings and homes from storm sewers and instead having the water flow though a lawn or soil system first so as to mitigate heavy flows into sewers. Other strategies included redesigning roadways to encourage storm-water runoff to pool in medians, rather than having it all rush into a sewer, and planting additional trees to absorb rainfall. And rather than landscaping park, city, and county land with manicured lawns, encouraging native prairie flora was deemed to be a better water-retention practice.

Source: Steve Francoeur, associate professor of biology at EMU
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar