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• Protecting Water | FAQ
  • Teach for the Watershed
  • Raingardens of West Michigan, Low Impact Development & Stormwater
  • West Michigan Stream Projects
  • Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program
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West Michigan Stream Projects

WMEAC will deliver water programs and track measurable improvements in water quality along West Michigan's priority streams.

West Michigan’s streams were once all as beautiful, clean and clear as this Kent County trout stream. West Michigan Stream Projects is a program that will work to protect and renew West Michigan’s prioritized streams to ensure pristine water quality for generations to come.

West Michigan Stream Project Goals: 1. WMEAC will identify three key streams in the lower Grand River Watershed. 2. WMEAC will obtain baseline data on these streams. 3. WMEAC will concentrate long-term organizing and restoration efforts to protect and restore their water quality and hydrology.

Featured Adopt-a-Stream Group: ADAC Plastics Stream Team WMEAC and the City of Grand Rapids would like to thank Scott Plummer and the rest of the gang from ADAC Plastics for an outstanding year of commitment to our city streams. Their dedication to the program and to the environment is greatly appreciated. ADAC plastics is a full-service automotive supplier dedicated to the production of door handles, components, exterior trim and lighting for worldwide auto makers. Founded in Grand Rapids in 1975, ADAC now employs more than 1,100 people. ADAC was given the “Clean Corporate Citizens” award by the State of Michigan.

ABOUT ADOPT-A-STREAM Goals:

• To protect and improve Kent County streams through community/citizen involvement in stream monitoring and restoration.
• To build citizen support for sound, local watershed management.
• To educate the public about water quality issues and empower citizens to protect and improve their streams by making use of federal, state and local government agencies and ordinances.
• To supplement water quality data collected by professional staff in water quality agencies and scientific institutions.

Activities include:

• Clean-ups: volunteers pick up trash and debris from stream banks and streams to be disposed of or recycled. Clean-ups can be fun community events and bring a lot of positive attention.
• Stream Walk Study: your group creates a map (with photos is even better) of your stream section, identifying the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly along your stream - from parks to parking lots, shady streamside trees to barren eroded banks, clean clear gravelly streambeds to muddy ones.
• Macroinvertebrate ("Bug") Study: your group captures aquatic insects and crustaceans from the stream bottom, identifies them, records data, and then calculates the quality of the stream based on what you find.
• Restoration/Education Projects: your group may decide to plant trees along a stream to prevent erosion or address a problem site such as drainage from a parking lot. You may decide to stencil the storm drains in the neighborhood so that people realize stormwater goes right to the stream.

Want to Adopt A Stream?

• contact WMEAC’s Adopt-A-Stream Coordinator and get the information you need.
• organize a group to adopt a section of stream and select a leader (10 people per mile is a rule of thumb).
• group leaders participate in training workshops and each team receives an Adopt-A-Stream manual.
• decide what stream or what activities are most interesting to you and the level of commitment your group can make (the Adopt-A-Stream Coordinator is glad to meet with you to help with this decision - request information about developing an Adopt-A-Stream team).
• decide your start date, and get going!

Be an Adopt-A-Stream Sponsor!

Contribute funding to support an Adopt-A-Stream team clean-up, monitor or restore a local steam for one year. Teams already involved in the Kent County region need your help to remain active and effective.

What Does Your Contribution Provide?

• Equipment
• Training materials
• Staff time
• Program promotion

What Are The Results?

• Our community has cleaner streams for recreation, wildlife, and improved public health.
• Your company is recognized as an Adopt-A-Stream sponsor in publications and press releases
• You may place Adopt-A-Stream signs with your company’s name along roadsides
• Each year the program’s successes, sponsors, data and participants are reported to the public

Interested in Adopt-A-Stream? Please call WMEAC at (616)-451-3051 and ask for Shawn Wessell.

For information about the Lakeshore Adopt-A-Stream Program contact Sandy Corrello

Action Items

Great Lakes Great Michigan is a campaign to bring Michigan’s laws in line with the Great Lakes Compact, a regional agreement among the 8 Great Lakes States to preserve, protect and restore our Great Lakes. Take Action! Participate in the campaign at their website.

Clean Kent County - Every day an estimated 1 million gallons of untreated waste from toilets and household drains is discharged from Kent County’s failing septic systems. Clean Kent County is a campaign to improve Kent County’s efforts to address this growing issue. To learn more or get involved contact Shawn Wessel at swessell@wmeac.org.

Hispanic Environmental Health Webpage The EPA has launched a new site in Spanish, for Hispanic U.S. residents. It provides information on environmental issues and their effects.