Boaters, fishermen and people who live on the shoreline have noticed something unmistakable about Lake St. Clair in recent weeks – the water is turning blue.

The drought conditions of the past three months have meant no polluted sewage-system overflows into the lake, which turn the waterfront a murky brown in the spring and summer. As a result, after a series of sewer discharges in March generated by rainstorms, Lake St. Clair has slowly rejuvenated.

The usual summer fare along the lake – beach closings and “blobs” of muck along the seawalls – is nowhere to be found with the weather so dry.

An environmental group, Save Lake St. Clair, took note of the rare occurrence by producing a video demonstrating the lake’s revival, as well as highlighting a healthy-looking Clinton River, which has lost its brownish-green tint and is also turning blue.

The reason for the change seems fairly obvious. In the past, sewer systems run by Macomb and Oakland counties dumped more than 1 billion gallons of sewage into the river and lake on an annual basis. Rainwater runoff from parking lots, lawns and farms also contributes to the contamination.

Doug Martz, an environmental activist from Harrison Township, said the blue hue of 2016 demonstrates what the waterways could look like if the sewers were separated – one pipe for sewage, one pipe for stormwater.

“We’ve had no beach closings. None. That probably hasn’t happened in more than 20 years. No black crud at the seawalls,”said Martz, who chaired the now-defunct Macomb County Water Quality Board. “This shows the lake and the river can clean themselves if they’re allowed to.”

Mother Nature offers us a tradeoff: brown grass and blue water.

You can watch the Save Lake St. Clair video, which was posted on July 1, at the group’s Facebook page.

 

Photo of the mouth of the Clinton River at Lake St. Clair: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers