The Detroit River has been a dumping ground. Now, its health is improving
Since 1987, the Detroit River has been designated as an Area of Concern
The Detroit River's reputation has become notorious over the decades due to pollution, but local scientists say restoration efforts are working, and they want to see those improvements reflected in the river's environmental status.
The Detroit River has served as one of the vital economic links between Detroit and Windsor. In 1987, it was identified as an area of concern under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canadian and American federal governments.
Windsor's harbour master previously told CBC that Detroit River has historically been a dumping ground.
Cannons dating back to the first French settlers have been discovered there, he said. There are also many bottles dating back to prohibition. Firearms have also turned up.
Watch | Diver discusses some of things he's found in the Detroit River
The term "BUI" is used by scientists to measure impairments in human health, economics, ecology and environment due to poor water quality in the river.
Acting Detroit River Remedial Action Plan coordinator Sarah Lanoue explained these units of measurement further to CBC News.
"If you break it down and look at the term, 'beneficial use' would be something that you enjoy getting out of the river, like fishing or going to the beach," Lanoue said. "So when they're impaired, it's when you can't do those things."
Since the action plan was established, 10 of the river's BUIs have been redesignated from "impaired" to "not impaired" according to a press release from the Detroit River Remedial Action Plan.
They are now recommending that a further two BUIs be redesignated: the fish portion of the Degraded Fish and Wildlife category and the entirety of Bird or Animal Deformities or Reproductive Problems.
A national problem
The Detroit River is designated an Area of Concern, but this designation also applies to multiple waterways across the nation.
"There's the St. Lawrence River [and] there's different areas within the Great Lakes that are considered to be impaired," Lanoue explained. "We're trying to delist the Detroit River as an area of concern."
Part of this ambition is to study a river's health over time and conclude whether it has surpassed the threshold for its BUI designations. In terms of the Degraded Fish and Wildlife BUI, Lanoue said that there's not enough evidence to suggest that the wildlife category can be redesignated.
"In this instance, we are just looking at the fish populations because we don't have enough scientific information yet to determine whether the wildlife populations are not impaired anymore," she said.
But, in terms of the other categories, "We actually have enough scientific evidence to determine that they're not impaired," Lanoue said.
The DRCC hosted a public consultation open house on Oct. 5 at the Ojibway Nature Centre to share information on environmental improvements to the Detroit River.
At the open house, ecotoxicologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada Shane DeSolla said that several sentinel species were assessed in terms of the Degraded Fish BUI, including northern leopard frogs, snapping turtles and treeswallows.
Involving community
She hopes that the potential lifting of BUIs could reflect the work that the DRCC has done over the years.
"We do a lot of large-scale habitat projects," she said. "[During] the Peche Island project we added a bunch of shoreline improvements and barriers to protect the fish that are in the water, and to improve fish spawning."
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With files from Afternoon Drive