Detroit River: cleanup needs $1 billion, $350 million still to raise

DETROIT. Fifty years ago the Detroit River was a polluted industrial waterway. Now it's a recreation spot, but 3.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment, loaded with PCBs, PAHs and mercury, still sit in it. Friends of the Detroit River, working with the EPA, EGLE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, put the full cleanup at $1 billion. The group secured $10 million in EPA and EGLE funding as of June, and the Great Lakes Legacy Act matches private donations at 65 percent, leaving about $350 million in nonfederal money still needed.

Thirteen of fourteen planned habitat restoration projects are done. The last, Lakewood East Park, covers nearly a mile of Detroit shoreline and is expected to start construction in spring 2027 and take three years, removing hardened seawalls to restore wetlands. If the sediment work finishes, the river could come off the federal Area of Concern list within three to four years.

"We all have a role to play, whether it's teaching young people about it," said Erma Leaphart, a retired Sierra Club organizer, on a recent tour of the restoration sites.