Local, state and federal environmental leaders gathered at Heritage Landing park in Muskegon Wednesday to celebrate the lake’s removal from the U.S-Canadian list of Areas of Concern around the Great Lakes.
Muskegon Lake made that list after more than a century of contamination from industrial and municipal waste.
The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership led efforts to clean up the lake with funding from state and federal sources.
The partners remediated 190,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and restored more than 130 acres of habitat, 6000 feet of shoreline and 100 acres of open water.
The groups removed 110,000 tons of logging-era sawmill debris from the lake as well.
Now according to a Grand Valley State University study, the restoration of Muskegon Lake is projected to increase local home values by nearly $8 million and boost the local recreation economy by $28 million annually.
More information is available at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Muskegon Lake Area of Concern webpage.
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