“Reflections of Business on the Rouge River,” by David Usher, Founder of Marine Pollution Control, Detroit, MI, written by Fenelon Ashley

Nowadays when we think about pollution in our waterways, people usually assume that pollution was intentional.  But 40+ years ago, the contamination that Marine Pollution Control was called upon to clean up was the result of accidental oil and fuel spills into the river, mostly as a result of heavy shipping traffic in the navigable sections of the lower Rouge.

Industry has today become demonized, but the public forgets that the Industrial Age was an era where manufacturing companies were hard at work producing products that the public was demanding.  Who can imagine life without the automobile?  Cars and trucks had become essential to our way of life, and companies like Ford Motor Company grew in response to consumer demand.  Vast amounts of raw materials were required to create the products and to power the manufacturing operations, and many of these materials were transported by large bulk ships.  The rivers were busy with shipping traffic, and accidents happened occasionally.  There were frequent rainbows floating on the water, and in most places you couldn’t see the bottom.

In 1967, Marine Pollution Control was launched as an oil spill response company when a call came in for the cleanup of an oil spill at the Ford Rouge Plant Turning Basin.   Thousands of gallons of Number 5 heating oil had overflowed its storage tank, spilling onto the ground and then pouring into the river.  Number 5 heating oil was used to run the plant at Ford Motor Company, it was used by ships to make their engines run, and it was also used to heat schools in Dearborn and Detroit.  On the day of the spill, the Ford plant was not in operation.  It was shut down because it had been the target of union negotiations.  The accidental spill occurred when a worker fell asleep, and a 20,000-gallon storage tank overflowed into the river from the dockage area where the navigable section of the Rouge began.

The cleanup took 8 days and nights, and we were making history as to how to remove the oil from the water.  Incidents like this taught us what kind of equipment and personnel was needed to respond to this type of emergency.  MPC grew its fleet, its technology, and its response teams with a focus on water cleanup.

Prior to the Clean Water Act of 1970, the only Federal pollution prevention regulation in the U.S. was the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (Refuse Act).  It prohibited the dumping of waste into navigable waters and tributaries, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were the only Federal responders.  Usually, though, the individual ships and companies tried to clean up their own spills.  The DNR was the only active State agency, and the DNR was in charge of overseeing the cleanups for spills they were aware of, and for determining when the cleanups were complete.

MPC had begun cleaning up oil spills before such cleanup became Federally mandated.  When the Clean Water Act of 1970 (CWA) imposed Federal regulations requiring the Coast Guard to respond to spills, the Coast Guard turned to MPC for advice.  Since MPC had pioneered oil spill cleanup methods, MPC then provided practical, hands-on training for Coast Guard personnel.  A working relationship had been forged and cemented, and for more than 40 years we have worked together on oil spill response incidents, issues, and prevention.

In the 1960’s there was a list, published by the DNR, naming companies who had chemicals and oils that could potentially get into a stream.  MPC contacted these companies and offered to remove their waste oil products for recycling or disposal.  This was how MPC created its original customer base, by helping to keep many of these companies from accidentally contaminating the environment, and by cleaning up spills that happened.

Marine Pollution Control headquarters are located on Old Channel of the Rouge, where skimmer vessels are docked on the river, ready to go into action whenever called, 24/7/365.  Our spill response equipment and technology allows us to clean up oil spills wherever they happen, and in almost any kind of environment.  We also attend to ships and boats in distress, to prevent their oils and fuels from becoming a spill.  “Lightering” is the process where we pump off fuels or oils from a ship in distress, and by safely removing the fuels and oils, we are able to remove the threat of a spill.  Although the Rouge River is home to MPC, we’ve cleaned up spills and prevented spills all around the world.

In addition to protecting the Rouge River, MPC has located its pumping systems at 19 ports of tanker traffic in the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  Our equipment is at the ready for the emergency removal of liquid cargo that are considered pollutants.  The most famous such lightering response was when we pumped off 40-million gallons of crude oil from the grounded supertanker Exxon Valdez into smaller tankers brought alongside the ship, preventing additional pollution from entering Prince William Sound, Alaska.  We’ve performed lightering operations as far from home as Antarctica, and were involved in the cleanup of oil in the Persian Gulf during “Desert Storm.”

When my partner, Bert Piggott, and I first began in the oil spill cleanup business as Marine Pollution Control, there was virtually no one else doing what we were doing, and MPC had no competition.  Today, there are many environmental companies performing cleanup, and the environment is cleaner as a result of these combined efforts.  We all need to do our share, and people at every level of society are in a position to help and to make a difference.  Cleanup, prevention, activism, and education all make a difference.  With today’s understanding of the problems caused by pollution, and with dedicated, determined people such as Friends of the Rouge working to prevent pollution and to improve water quality, Industry has become more aware of their role and responsibility not to pollute.  Progress can be seen where the waterways are becoming cleaner, ecosystems are becoming healthier, and the overall environment is improving.

Congratulations to Friends of the Rouge and its many fellow environmental stewards on 25 years of involvement and progress.

The Picnic Bench Rescue-By Barb Goryca

My husband, Ben, and I have walked one mile of the Rouge River everyday, come rain, shine, sleet, or blizzard for 30 years!  We do think of ourselves as river stewards and report many problems to the correct department.   For five years, we watched a picnic bench that was thrown into the Rouge without being too concerned.  It seemed that the river just continued to flow around it and no harm done.

Along about the fifth year, we noticed that the bank across the way was receding and the roots of the tree across from it were becoming exposed.  I took a measurement of the footage of the eroded bank. I was shocked to see it must have been about 10 feet lost, coming very close to the trail that we all use for our walks.   At this time, I belonged to the Dearborn Heights Watershed Stewards Commission.  I discussed it at one meeting and asked for advice.  Our chairperson at that time was Steve Ray, a dedicated environmentalist with no fear of a challenge.

So, Steve suggested that he and my husband take it out of the river by themselves.  The D.H. Stewards own their own waders, so Steve brought the waders and rope and met us at the river.  The bank was formidable…about 8 ft and with sides that went straight down to the water.  The river was not shallow, but did not go over the waders.

Ben brought a ladder which the guys used to climb down the bank.  We own a set of airplane straps which we attached to the car bumper.  To that strap, we attached the heavy rope which we tied to the picnic bench.  This is where I came in….I got in the car and slowly inched the car forward while the guys steadied the bench and guided it to the edge of the bank.  Now, came the tricky part…the bench had to be guided up the ladder and onto dry ground.  Somehow, with the guys’ care and expertise, we did get it  up to the top.  There, I dragged it near to the service road along the Hines.

The next morning I immediately called Wayne County Parks to pick it up, so that the boys wouldn’t throw it back in!  And they did…which resulted in a happy ending:)

Sadly, right now, I am working to get two more benches that are resting in an easy place for a pick up.  They will be moved along stream in the next flood. So far, no one has come to the rescue…and so it goes.

Barb Goryca, Co-chair, Dearborn Heights Watershed Stewards

Memories of the Rouge River

Memories of the Rouge River

For over ten years, my 6th graders and I tested the Rouge River every spring.  We

tested at several sites including Heritage Woods in Farmington Hills and Ford Field in

Dearborn.  Enthusiasm always ran high and there were a number of ‘dunkings’ along

the way.  While that was not dangerous with the exception of wet clothes, I remember

when I was growing up in Dearborn, the Rouge River was always there tempting us.

Our parents warned us of dire consequences if we played in the water or, heaven forbid,

got any water in our mouths.  We waded in the river in spite of repeated warnings,

hopping from stone to stone and exploring along the banks from Ford Field to

Telegraph.  No one we knew ever got sick.  The reality was that the river was polluted

and our parents were wise to urge care.

Years later when my classes were involved with FOTR,  I developed a questionnaire for

the students to circulate as part of the unit.  There were several questions about the

Rouge River and how clean and safe it was and what life did it support.

The students were directed to circulate the questionaire to three groups of people:

young person in school, their parents and an older person like their grandparents.

When the results were tabulated inevitably the oldest generation still thought of the

Rouge River as dangerously polluted and that it must be avoided. The middle

generation, parents of my students, had mixed opinions, but exhibited a somewhat

more positive outlook.  They thought the river was getting better. Students were by far

the most hopeful and thought that the Rouge River was safe for canoeing. Some had

heard about the Rouge River  Clean-up campaign and thought it was very effective.

The testing program in the schools and a yearly clean-up day has worked wonders our much loved urban river.  Real world science is a superior experience!

Judy Morlan

Retired middle school science teacher

Member of the REP Task Force

Duck ala Rouge-By: John Schmittroth

In the fall of 2008, the city of Southfield opened a 50-acre nature preserve called Carpenter Lake.  This is located along the Ravines Branch of the Rouge River, near 10 Mile and Inkster roads.  I was interested to explore this as a place to hike and because I was not familiar with a lake near 10 Mile and was curious to see what it looked like.

I hiked on the well-marked trail and it took a while to get to the lake, which was down toward 9 Mile.  When I saw it, I realized this was a lake where my friends and I hung out as preteens in the early 1960s.  Only we knew it simply as “the ravines.” It actually is an impoundment on the Rouge River and not a natural lake.

Across more than 40 years came memories of wintertime duck hunting with bow and arrow near the dam forming the lake.  Early Saturday morning, three or four of us would set out to hike three miles over snow-covered streets to get there.   We were careful to keep our bows unstrung and slung from our shoulders, which was our (questionable) understanding of the legal manner to transport such hunting weapons.

Below the dam on the frozen lake, the Rouge River resumed in a pool of open water usually holding several dozen ducks.  The ducks were reluctant to fly away from the pool because, in this pre-global warming time, there were few other stretches of the Rouge or other nearby water that were not frozen over.

When we reached the woods on the east side of the open water, we’d string the bows, notch arrows, and creep through the trees to get as close as we could to the ducks.  When a hush fell across the entire flock, we knew they were about to flee, so we’d let fly with the arrows.  Even though there might be 50 ducks jammed together in a small area, it was true what they said: you need to pick out an individual target in the flock to get anything.

We almost always got one duck and sometimes two.  It then was a production to retrieve the bird and our errant arrows from the water using long branches without falling in.  Further, we needed to hurry, because there was a house atop the hill on the other side, and we were sure the owners would call police if they saw what we were up to.

Then it was back deep into the woods for lunch.  We gathered wood for a fire and plucked and gutted the duck using snow to wipe it clean.  We put the duck on an improvised spit over the fire and unpacked various side dishes smuggled from home – bread, apples, salt and pepper, Twinkies, cookies, pop.  As the duck cooked, we sliced off slabs to make sandwiches, beginning with the outer layer (and biggest kid) first and progressing in slices closer to the bone as they cooked.  When the duck was gone, we polished off the dessert items.  Heaven!  Still among the best meals I’ve ever had.

Then it was time to hike the miles back home as shadows grew across the winter landscape.  Arriving home near the end of the afternoon, I’d answer any questions as to how I spent my day with “Oh, me and my friends got some lunch.”

The Rouge River: A Personal History – Janet Helm Sebok

Helms Haven Recreation Area

Many people who drive to and from work through Edward Hines Parkway have no idea that the Rouge River was an important source of water for farmers.

More than half a century ago, my grandparents, Gus and Minnie Helm, farmed the area of the parkway between Warren Avenue and Outer Drive which is now called “Helms Haven”.

My grandfather had a pump house next to the Rouge River to water his crops on the flats (where the play area is now). He grew eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and corn to sell by the bushel at Eastern Market. The water was also pumped up the hill to his crops near their home, including pear, apple and peach trees. My grandparents also grew flowers and made bouquets to take to Eastern Market.

The river has always been a flood plain. There would be so much water that you couldn’t even canoe under the Warren Avenue Bridge. When the flood water wasn’t quite so high, you could canoe all the way to Northville. In the winter, we could ice skate for miles. Unless, of course, we would fall into the water, after which we could only hope to get home in time before our clothes froze on us.

Thanks to the “Friends of the Rouge” the river getting back to its cleaner state, free of all the junk people throw into it.

The Rouge River has always been a part of my life, even now, living only half of a block away from it.

Janet Helm Sebok

Rouge Rescue-Some of my Favorite Volunteer Experiences

Some of my favorite volunteer experiences were during Rouge Rescue. Every year, my dad, my brother, and I were always the muddiest and craziest volunteers in the river. The organizers always enjoyed seeing us working hard to remove garbage from the river. One year, we pulled out two or three cars. Another year, we found a bicycle, a lawn mower, and about seven shopping carts! The work was very rewarding!

By:  Mekie Kukan

Stories of the Rouge River-By: Dr. Orin Gelderloos

In the early 1970s, I directed a series of National Science Foundation Summer Institutes for high school and middle school teachers on Environmental Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  During the course, we took canoe trips on the Rouge River beginning at the Henry Ford Estate.  On the trip upstream from the dam, we traveled over and around several log jams, under the Ford Road bridge and up the Middle Branch until it was too shallow for canoes.  As we disembarked somewhere along Hines Drive well before Outer Drive, some people were walking on the shoulder of Hines Drive and stopped dead in their tracks to see 25 people step up the bank of the river with canoe paddles in hand.  They stared in disbelief and became even more awestruck when one of the teachers told them that we were headed to Northville and could they tell us how far it was!

On another study session by canoe with a group of teachers, we canoed downstream from the dam when the work on the channelization was beginning.  The teachers were amazed that we could canoe on the Rouge River without special permission since some highly placed official surely ruled the River with great authority.  We used this teachable moment to explain access laws on waterways and riparian rights.  Survey work on the channelization was just getting underway.  One of the survey team members standing on the river bank challenged our presence on “his” river in a loud voice.  A teacher in our program had been in the military and had the quick presence to mind to tell him that we had permission to travel on the river based on an Army code for which he made up a group of mumbo jumbo letters and numbers. He said it with such authority that the surveyor was taken aback and had nothing more to say.

In 1973, a new faculty member in our physics department was adventurous enough to suggest that we take a canoe trip on the Rouge.  He grew up in New York City and wanted to explore a “wilderness area.”  We borrowed a canoe from a one of our stalwart student leaders of our Natural Areas program for a journey upstream from the Estate.  It was a delightful trip and my colleague wrote a piece about it for the local paper.  At the same time, the Rouge was in flood stage and the water was high over the dam.  One of us wondered if the water was deep enough for us to canoe over the dam.  Being experimental scientists, we knew how to find the answer to that question  — try it.

Sure enough, we tightened up our life jackets (now personal floatation devices) and powered on to the waterfall.  The water was deep enough to carry us over the limestone pieces at the top of the dam, although bottom of the canoe scraped as it tilted forward and began its downward slide on the slanted face of the dam.  For a fraction of a second we were very pleased with our successful answer to the question of our investigation – yes, we could canoe over the dam.  Then the canoe got to the bottom of the waterfall and the unintended consequences syndrome took over.  The bow of the canoe did not rise and float on the top of the wave like a whitewater raft would do.  Instead it plowed into the wave and drenched the physics professor in the bow.  When the stern of the canoe got to the bottom of the waterfall, the canoe leveled off and the water formed a tidal wave inside the canoe that headed to the stern and completely soaked the student who was sitting in the middle.  Fortunately, I was in the stern because of the appropriate weight distribution for proper canoe travel.  By the time the water got to me I was up on the gunwales and thwarts trying to stay dry, but only with partial success.

Then there is a part of the canoe-over-the dam story that I will not tell.  But if I did, I would ask you “How many samples are experimental scientists expected to take?”  Of course, they must take more than one sample or they can change one of the variables, such as rearrange the weight by putting the heavier bow person in the middle and the lighter middle person in the bow.  (I still had the stern position.)   Well, it takes no imagination for even the most amateur scientist to determine the results of the second run over the waterfall.  We all felt that as a scientific experiment the results were inconsequential, but the “wilderness” adventure was “wildly” successful.

I Participated in Programs

As I grew up in MI I participated in school programs that centered around the Rouge. When I became an adult I participated with Friends of the Rouge in events such as Rouge Rescue. I was fortunate enough to work as a Student Naturalist for the Environmental Interpretive Center at U of M Dearborn. I facilitated programs for all age groups and enjoyed every minute. I kept a watchful eye on Hines Park during flooding of the Rouge.It was this flooding process that I learned about Floodplains and the effects of flooding. The Rouge has been a vital learning tool that has taught me about the life cycle of a river. I learned how Henry Ford harnessed its power to aid his work. The Rouge is also a recreational river, it is a home to lots of wildlife too. I do not think I could have learned so much about a river through reading a textbook or listening to lectures.Because of organizations like Friends of the Rouge I gained better knowledge of the river and it has led me to the place I am now. I work as the Education / Outreach Coordinator for the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association in southern WV. We deal with the same type of issues they deal with.The Rouge is a hands on kind of river. Folks should take time to get to know it. It can prove to be a good resource and friend. Here’s to another 25 years! Thank you Friends of the Rouge for a fine job of taking care of an old friend.

Submitted by:  Erica H