If you have been to the lake, you’ve probably seen the vegetation growing.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has been consulting with other agencies about how to address the growth, which is surely to increase over the next five years as crews continue to work on repairs at Boone Dam.

“Right now, there’s a benefit as the water begins to come back up,” TVA Vice President of Land and River Management David Bowling said. “There’s a benefit of that to the aquatic habitat and so ideally as much of it as we can leave, we’re going to leave. But the stuff that then hinders navigation we’ll be working with folks to address that.”

Once they start raising the water levels in a few years, TVA said they will leave some of the vegetation because it is great for the aquatic habitat, while also removing things that could hinder navigation on the lake.

Read More  https://www.wjhl.com/news/tva-vegetation-growing-on-boone-lake-a-benefit-to-aquatic-habitat/

The abuse began in the 1800’s during the lumber era when sawmill debris was tossed into the lake waters and continued in the 1900’s as foundries and factories further contaminated the waters by dumping countless tons of wood, foundry slag and wastewater into the lake.

Muskegon Lake has been contaminated with heavy metals, petrochemicals, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls from municipal and industrial discharges. The lake was an open sewer for industry up until 1973 when a massive wastewater management system began treating industrial sewage.

Over the past several decades, cleanup efforts have transformed Muskegon Lake into a one of Michigan’s best inland fishing and recreational lakes. A new project will help toward removing the lake from an area of concern by removing large debris such as tires, metal and chunks of concrete from the lake bottom. The project also includes restoring 10.3 acres of wetlands and 325 feet of shoreline.

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