By Rina Risper
President & Publisher
The New Citizens Press
“Draw down” is not an artistic statement for drawing a line down a piece of paper or a kung fu technique.
There is a very simple explanation. Right now the Grand River is making quite a stink. That’s because every four years a “drawn down” occurs. The river’s water level is taken down four feet. There are two reasons why this is done. The first is so that the Board of Water and Light can inspect the North Dam and the second is so that an inspection of the river for illegal connections to the city’s storm water drains can be conducted by the Waste Water Treatment division.
Personally, I was disconnected to the Grand River until I started hanging out at the Brenke Fish Ladder with my children. I noticed that people were actually eating fish that came out of the Grand River. I saw people standing in rubber trousers fishing. Majority of the people fishing were fishing for breakfast, lunch and or dinner. Imagine that. I looked in the water and it was murky and dirty and I couldn’t see the bottom.
Now that is an interesting concept, I thought as I watched a young boy scurry along the fence looking for bait, fishing line that could be reused to catch his next meal.
A group of local citizens banded together to clean up the litter during the draw down. They are the “Drawdown Cleanup: What a Grand Idea!” folks.
Project Coordinator and Lansing citizen since 1989, Yvonne LeFave, states that the response from Lansing citizens has been encouraging. “I started by placing a comment in an online forum. The next thing I know, folks who were thinking the same thing were emailing me, asking how we could get this done!”.
There is no defense for mediocrity and it is difficult to imagine why the clean-up wasn’t scheduled to be done at the same time that the draw down occurred.
The New Citizens Press contacted Erik Larsen from Impression 5 Museum and he didn’t respond to our request for a comment.
LaFave said that their group plans a special cleanup on Saturday, August 18th in addition to the regularly-scheduled BWL Adopt-a-River cleanup in September. LaFave said, “The date for the Adopt-a-River cleanup was scheduled long before the drawdown dates were known. Our effort is an attempt to take to advantage of this great opportunity of the drawdown and really clean up the river, making it safer for the wildlife that depends on it as well as for boaters, anglers, and folks on the river walk to enjoy.”
Their group plans a special cleanup on Saturday, August 18th in addition to the regularly-scheduled BWL Adopt-a-River cleanup in September. “The date for the Adopt-a-River cleanup was scheduled long before the drawdown dates were known,” LeFave adds. “Our effort is an attempt take to advantage of this great opportunity of the drawdown and really clean up the river, making it safer for the wildlife that depends on it as well as for boaters, anglers, and folks on the river walk to enjoy.”
Please log on to
www.drawdowncleanup.org for more information. If you belong to a group and you would like to volunteer call 517 484-2372.
