There’s Nearly 75,000 Pounds of Pollution In The Red Cedar River

That number should be concerning folks! 75,000 pounds of trash, waste and more were found in the Red Cedar River. There is a $35 million anti-pollution project was introduced to help compact the issue, and get the river back on track by at least fall.

If the project works as intended, we could see pollution go anywhere from 94 to 96 percent as an average.

Get our free mobile app

“What we’ve done is we’ve rebuilt the drain to have more capacity within it and we built more storage which it didn’t have any storage at all,”  Patrick Lindemann, the Ingham County Drain Commissioner. “It’s enough storage to hold back two inches of water over the whole water shed so that’s a vast improvement than what it was.”

The project will also be taking the water level down by two inches, which should help control pollution levels.

“Interrupt the flow and add oxygen by creating waterfalls, we’re going to allow the water to intermingle with plant life and other vegetation, aquatic and land life, that will take care about 60 percent of the pollution,” Lindemann told WILX.

There will also be ponds built in the river, which then will be filled with sediment, which will allow them to clean it out as needed.

“It’s going to increase the quality of life for three counties,” Lindemann said. “It’s going to be a lot cleaner because of this, this is the most pollution going into that river out of any other discharge that I’m in charge of, (and) I’m in charge of 236 different discharges along the Red Cedar River in Ingham county alone.”

If you are a resident in Lansing, you can expect to see some money come out of your winter taxes to help cover the costs of this project.