Making blue investments that yield green dividends

By Laura Crawford

Editor’s note: Blue investments in a green economy are among the issues that will be discussed Oct. 11-14 in Detroit at the 2011 Great Lakes Week.  Detroit Public Television is providing ongoing coverage of Great Lakes Week at greatlakesnow.org

Upgrading storm sewers isn’t glamorous, but  such investments not only restore environmental health, they can benefit local economies.

Good water management improves property values, encourages recreation and tourism and offsets business costs, experts say.

“Environmental and economic issues don’t have to be separate,” said David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.  “By designing projects with multiple goals in mind, communities can turn the tide in the direction of seeing environmental investments create economic growth.”

Ullrich’s group of more than 80 U.S. and Canadian cities in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence watershed have invested $15 billion in water protection since 2003. Investments include beach and wetlands restorations, storm water and sewer improvements.

Such blue investments in a green economy will be discussed this week during Great Lakes Week in Detroit. Officials from three Great Lakes communities will explain how it works.

Canadian island cashes in on waterfront

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, a city on a St. Lawrence River island, has a waterfront restoration that has spurred economic growth.  It attracts pleasure boaters and  produces traffic for shops and restaurants.  It has even inspired an outdoor theater with water-themed performances.

“Tourism and activity there have snowballed in a positive sense as a result of development around the bay,”  Ullrich said.

Michigan city invests in sewers

In Grand Rapids, Mich., replacing the city’s aging combined storm water and sewer system required more than 10 years and $300 million.

The old system often contaminated the Grand River.  The new one channels storm water and sewage into separate drains and minimizes the pollutants that reach waterways.

“In Grand Rapids, it’s a quality of life improvement,” says Ullrich. “Better storm water management has translated in to cleaner water,  jobs to build the infrastructure and even improved property values along the Grand River.”

Lake Erie town manages fertilizer runoff

In Chatham-Kent, Ontario, an agricultural community along the northern Lake Erie shore, mitigating the runoff of agricultural fertilizer into Rondeau Bay has helped both water quality and farmers.

The fertilizer runoff, rich in nitrates and phosphorous, can cause algae blooms that choke waterways with excessive water plant growth.

Today a system of 15 ponds collects the runoff before it ever reaches the bay. The first part of the system filters the water through vegetation and allows nutrients to slowly settle. The second part holds the nutrient-rich water where farmers can harvest the slurry for reuse on their fields.

“It’s more economical to prevent the agricultural nutrients from reaching the Great Lakes than it is to deal with their effects once they’re in the bay,” said Randy Hope, the mayor of the community. “We could have built treatment plants but instead we worked with local agriculture.”

With an initial cost of about $95,000 Canadian, for this system there is essentially no ongoing upkeep costs. Now nine more ponds are planned.

“We have one of the most progressive farming communities around, ”  Hope said. “Once we’d identified the hot spots where runoff was reaching the waterways, we started to sit down individually with farmers and talk about how we could do things smarter. Soon they were talking to each other and it kept multiplying.

“If you look at a map of Chatham-Kent we’re right between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie,” Hope said. “We all need to play our role in preserving the health of the water.”