Beach Wellness Campaign Targets Condition of State Park for Swimming

Save Our Shoreline Group Leads Donors for This Year's Cleanup Project

March 11, 2007
By: Dave Rogers

Local businesses and organizations so far have contributed $3,650 toward cleanup programs on the beach at Bay City State Park, according to County Commissioner Kim Coonan.

Coonan, along with fellow commissioner Ernie Krygier, for the past few years have been conducting the campaign to restore the beach at State Park to historically clean conditions to attract tourists and local swimmers and sunbathers once again.

Local labor unions and volunteers have been involved in hand-on projects in cleaning the beach under a special permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. (See: "C'mon Up, The Swimmin's Fine," MyBayCity.com May 29, 2006.)

Donors so far include: Save Our Shoreline, $1,000; Covenant Health, $500; Independent Bank, $250; Consumers Energy, $250; Sargent Docks, $250; and $200 each from the following:

Chemical Bank, Schisler & Schisler, Mulligan's/Gatsby's, Patrick McFarland, Bay County Democratic Party, Whitefeather Disposal and Republic Waste.

A Beach Wellness 5K Run & Walk and kids' 1/4 mile run will be held Saturday, April 14 at 10 a.m. at the State Park. Contact Kim Coonan, 684-7675 or kjcwcc@chartermi.net or Ernie Krygier 233-3872 for information or registration forms. All proceeds from the event benefit the Beach Wellness program. The run/walk is endorsed by the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

Last year the campaign involved cleaning about 1,200 feet of beach and installing floating docks to bridge the muck at the water's edge.

The muck, as it turns out, is not exclusive to Bay City, as has been previously thought. It is algae known as Cladophora, that is affecting beaches all over the Great Lakes.

The University of Wisconsin has been researching Cladophora, a branching green filamentous alga found naturally along the coastline of most of the Great Lakes.

A recent report states: "Cladaphora blooms to high phosphorus levels in the water, mainly as a result of human activities such as fertilizing lawns, poorly maintained septic systems, inadequate sewage treatment, agricultural runoff and detergents containing phosphorus. Due to tighter restrictions, phosphorus levels declined during the 1970s and Cladophora blooms were largely absent in the 1980s and 1990s."

A recent resurgence of algae, has lead to unsightly and foul-smelling beaches, reduced quality of drinking water and decreased property values, according to the report.

Reasons for the current resurgence are unknown, but possible causes include increased nutrients, water clarity, water temperature and changing lake levels. The main cause may be phosphorus, experts say.

"In the past five to ten years, excessive Cladophora growth has re-emerged as a management problem in parts of the Great Lakes," the report said. "This has resulted in public complaints generally related to the decline in aesthetic conditions near the lakeshore."

Zebra mussels, that invaded the lakes in recent years, are now abundant; these animals filter the water, thereby increasing light penetration that may allow for growth of the algae, experts theorize.###