The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced about $3.5 million in grant awards Tuesday, including just under $600,000 to the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay. These funds will be used to replace a road-stream crossing on Eleventh Street over Kids Creek in west Traverse City.
Rob Selesky, an EGLE project manager, said that the crossing is misaligned and undersized, constricting water flow in the creek and leading to erosion. Selesky said that erosion is considered a form of nonpoint source pollution — as opposed to point source pollution, which comes from a single identifiable source, like a factory.
“Nonpoint source pollution pretty much deals with everything else: rain, snowmelt, and wind carrying pollutants off the landscape. Nutrients, sentiments, and E coli are the big categories that we’re working with,” Selesky explained.
