"Water is the best of all things." - Pindar (c. 522 BC - c. 438 BC), Olympian Odes

Swimming in the Grand River?  Fishing, rafting or kayaking in that water?!  Sure, why not?  The water quality of the Grand, as it flows through downtown Grand Rapids, is actually GOOD!  As a matter of fact, it is as good as that of renowned scenic trout stream, the Rogue River, a major upstream Grand River tributary.  What about after a big rain event?

No worries.  The new PARCC (Plainfield, Alpine, Rockford, Cannon and Cortland) Side Facility is up and running.  It is not your typical sewage treatment plant.  Located upriver at Lamoreaux Park off Coit Ave., this clean water plant really produces clean water.  Not just cleaner-than-sewage and being able to meet the minimum pollution standards allowed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. EPA, the effluent is as clean or cleaner than the waters of the Grand River to which it is discharged, and it is probably clean enough for someone to drink as a demonstration. 

As for the infamous storm water run off,  the untreated sewage overflow problems Grand Rapids has been known for?  That all takes place downstream at Market Ave.  

The City of Grand Rapids has spent 210 million dollars on sewer upgrades since the 1980’s. That expenditure has reduced the total volume of untreated sewage discharged annually into the Grand by 99.74 percent.

The city will spend 260 million dollars by 2019, the deadline to eliminate the remaining 26 hundredths of a percent of sewage overflow. The year 2019 is specified in an agreement between the Grand Rapids and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as the year by which the city will address the remaining 7 of its original 59 sewer overflow sites. 

Study From The City of Grand Rapids Environmental Services Department 

The water quality index (WQI) is a statistic designed to closely approximate state and national WQI’s as published on the Internet and elsewhere.  The usual factors that enter into its calculation are: the percent saturation of dissolved oxygen, the change in temperature from a reference temperature (usually the most upstream from heat sources), pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total solids, fecal coliform counts, phosphate, nitrate, and turbidity. For each parameter, a Q-statistic is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being best. 

Phase One and Two of the proposed whitewater installation would be constructed from approximately 6th St down to Fulton.  See the graphs below for water quality in that section of the river measured upstream at knapp and downstream at wealthy.  

For the entire published study, visit  http://www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=1958