Michigan is taking another significant step toward addressing legacy contamination and restoring some of the state’s most important waterways.
Through the Reclaim the Rivers program, announced by the state on October 6th, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are committing $89 million in state settlement funds to river cleanup, habitat restoration, and expanded public access. The initiative will focus substantial resources on the Detroit River and Kalamazoo River watershed while also supporting strategic restoration projects throughout Michigan.
For environmental professionals, the program represents more than an investment in restoration. It is likely to generate a substantial need for environmental investigation, sediment characterization, analytical testing, remedial planning, construction support, and post-remediation monitoring.
As these projects move from planning into implementation, reliable environmental data will be essential to making informed decisions about contaminated sediment and protecting Michigan’s waterways for decades to come.
A Major Investment in Michigan’s Waterways
The Reclaim the Rivers program will allocate funding across three primary areas:
$50 million for contaminated sediment cleanup, habitat improvements, and public access in the Detroit River.
$25 million for river restoration and fish and wildlife habitat projects throughout the Kalamazoo River watershed.
More than $14 million for strategic river restoration projects elsewhere in Michigan.
EGLE and DNR have established joint project teams for the Detroit and Kalamazoo watersheds. These teams will work with federal agencies, local governments, Tribal nations, community organizations, industry, nonprofits, and residents to develop restoration plans and identify opportunities to leverage additional public and private funding.
The scale of this collaborative approach is important. River restoration projects often involve multiple sources of contamination, complex sediment conditions, numerous property owners and stakeholders, and regulatory requirements that extend across jurisdictions.
Successful projects will require an equally collaborative approach to environmental characterization and data management.
Sediment Remediation Starts With Understanding What Is There
One of the central objectives of Reclaim the Rivers is to address legacy contamination from PCBs and other pollutants.
For decades, industrial, municipal, and other activities have contributed contaminants to Michigan's waterways. In many cases, contaminants that entered a river system years ago remain associated with sediment, where they can persist and potentially become available to aquatic organisms or be transported to other locations. Before contaminated sediment can be effectively managed, project teams need to understand its distribution, concentration, physical characteristics, and potential risks.
That begins with a well-designed sampling and analytical program. Depending on the site and project objectives, sediment investigations may require characterization for contaminants such as:
PCBs and Aroclors
PFAS
Metals
PAHs and other SVOCs
VOCs
Pesticides and other legacy contaminants
Petroleum-related constituents
Other site-specific contaminants of concern
Analytical data can help project teams delineate contamination, evaluate sediment management alternatives, support remedial design, and establish appropriate endpoints for cleanup.
In large and complex watersheds, the quality and consistency of that data become particularly important. Decisions about excavation, dredging, disposal, beneficial reuse, capping, habitat restoration, and long-term monitoring can depend on having defensible analytical results.
From Investigation to Remediation: Data Supports Every Stage
Environmental laboratory testing is not simply a component of the initial site investigation. Analytical data can support decision-making throughout the project lifecycle.
1. Site Characterization
Early sampling helps establish the nature and extent of contamination. Carefully planned sampling strategies can identify areas requiring additional investigation and provide the data necessary to develop conceptual site models. For sediment projects, this may include evaluating contaminant concentrations at different depths and locations while considering sediment composition, depositional patterns, and potential contaminant transport.
2. Remedial Planning and Design
Once contamination is characterized, analytical results can help engineers and project teams evaluate potential remedial approaches. The appropriate strategy can vary considerably depending on contaminant concentrations, sediment characteristics, depth, location, ecological conditions, and intended future use of the river. Laboratory data may help distinguish areas requiring active remediation from areas that can be addressed through other management strategies.
3. Dredging and Sediment Management
Where contaminated sediment is removed, characterization data can help determine how excavated material should be managed.
Additional testing may be required to support waste characterization, transportation and disposal decisions, treatment considerations, or beneficial reuse evaluations. This is an area where representative sampling and appropriate analytical methods are especially important. Inaccurate or incomplete characterization can result in unnecessary costs, delays, or inappropriate management decisions.
4. Remediation Verification
Following sediment removal or other remedial activities, sampling can help determine whether cleanup objectives have been achieved.
Confirmation and post-remediation sampling provide an important line of evidence that the completed work has addressed the identified contamination and that remaining concentrations are consistent with project requirements.
5. Long-Term Monitoring
Restoration does not necessarily end when construction is complete.
Depending on the project, monitoring may be necessary to evaluate sediment stability, contaminant concentrations, ecological recovery, or the effectiveness of implemented controls. Consistent analytical methods and quality systems become particularly valuable when comparing results over multiple sampling events and across large geographic areas.
Restoration and Remediation Are Closely Connected
One of the most important aspects of Reclaim the Rivers is that the initiative does not treat contamination cleanup and ecological restoration as separate objectives.
The program is intended to simultaneously address contamination, restore habitat, improve fish and wildlife health, and expand public access to Michigan's waterways.
That integrated approach reflects an important evolution in environmental remediation.
Historically, cleanup projects could be viewed primarily through the lens of removing or containing contamination. Today, many restoration projects take a broader perspective:
What will the river look like and how will it function after remediation is complete? Answering that question requires collaboration among environmental scientists, engineers, ecologists, regulators, municipalities, Tribal communities, property owners, contractors, and other stakeholders.
An Opportunity for Michigan's Environmental Industry
Reclaim the Rivers represents an important opportunity not only for Michigan's waterways, but also for the state's environmental science and engineering community.
The program will require expertise across a broad range of disciplines, including environmental investigation, sediment science, analytical chemistry, ecological assessment, engineering, dredging, remediation, habitat restoration, construction, and long-term monitoring.
For consultants, early consideration of analytical requirements can help streamline projects later in the process.
Questions worth considering during project planning include:
What contaminants of concern should be evaluated?
What analytical methods and reporting limits are appropriate for the project objectives?
How should sediment samples be collected to adequately characterize spatial and vertical variability?
What quality-control requirements will apply?
Will analytical data need to support waste characterization or disposal decisions?
What testing will be needed for remedial confirmation?
How will data from different project phases and laboratories be compared?
What turnaround times are necessary to keep field and construction activities moving?
Addressing these questions early can help reduce surprises as projects progress from investigation through remediation and restoration.
Looking Ahead
Michigan's rivers represent an important environmental, recreational, cultural, and economic resource. The Reclaim the Rivers initiative provides a significant opportunity to build upon decades of cleanup and restoration work while addressing contamination that continues to affect aquatic ecosystems and communities.
The $89 million commitment is an important starting point, but the long-term success of these projects will depend on careful planning, collaboration, sound science, and high-quality environmental data.
For environmental laboratories, that means being more than a testing provider. Supporting complex restoration projects requires an understanding of how analytical results will be used—from the initial investigation and remedial design through sediment management, confirmation sampling, and long-term monitoring.
As Michigan begins the next chapter of its river restoration efforts, environmental science will play a central role in turning investment into measurable, lasting results.
At Merit Laboratories, we are proud to support environmental professionals working to characterize, remediate, and restore contaminated sites and waterways throughout Michigan and across the United States. Our laboratory team can support projects with analytical testing and data designed to help clients make informed environmental decisions at every stage of a project. Merit is designated as a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE).