EVALUATION OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN BED SEDIMENT: ROUGE RIVER DRAINAGE BASIN SE MICHIGAN

The industrialization of Southeast Michigan over the last one hundred years resulted in significant heavy metal contamination in the bed sediment of the Rouge River watershed. In 1988 a Rouge River Remedial Action Plan was adopted, and 2.2 billion dollars have been invested in controlling the metals that enter the watershed through surface runoff, discharges of contaminated groundwater, air-fall deposition of particulate matter, and contributions from combined sewer overflows (CSOs). Many of these facilities were not operational when a 1995 research project was conducted which identified heavy metal contamination throughout the entire watershed that exceeded EPA criteria for the protection of surface water quality. Surface sediment, collected from 149 sites along the four branches of the watershed during the summer of 2013 was analyzed for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Hg, Ni, Se, Zn as well as total organic carbon (TOC). The methods used to collect sediment and the locations of the collection sites were replicated using the 1995 study as a template. Using global positioning system instrumentation, accurate site collection locations were recorded and mapped. Heavy metal levels at those locations from the current study and from the original 1995 study will be compared in order to determine areas of improvement/stagnation/degradation within the watershed and to highlight effects of the significant investment into this watershed.