Words
from the Past
Michigan's
Most Polluted River
For
more than 40 years, citizens, state officials and newspapers
were appalled by the condition of the Kalamazoo River, including
its principal tributary in the City of Kalamazoo, Portage
Creek. Studies repeatedly found few if any fish in a 20-mile
stretch downstream of the city because of massive contamination
from paper industry wastes and municipal sewage. Although
described as "grossly polluted" in the 1930s, the
river did not benefit from real cleanup until the late 1960s.
Other industries also contributed to the insults against the
river.
"Sportsmen
were enraged, the public was shocked, and demands for 'a pollution
law with teeth' were heard after the announcement in September
that the Kalamazoo river between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo
had been poisoned by the dumping of 5,000 gallons of zinc
cyanide solution. An estimated 20,000 fish were killed, and
lives of all persons or animals which came in contact with
the fish were threatened…The river was banned to fishing
and swimming, and authorities kept a constant watch along
more than 20 miles of the river for several days after the
poisoning. Dead fish littered the banks of the river."
--
Kalamazoo Gazette, January 1, 1948
*
* *
Charles
W. Garfield of Grand Rapids is credited with first proposing
a state forest preserve in 1881, 20 years before the Legislature
finally acted. As President of the Forestry Commission from
1899-1909, he persistently advocated the replanting of Michigan's
forests.
"An
individual can hardly be expected to begin an operation that
shall find its completion in some succeeding generation, but
the State goes on forever. It can make investments that shall
bring returns a century hence, and wait for the returns…The
contagion of active interest in forestry affairs, of tree
planting, conservation of natural beauty, should spread rapidly,
and legislators should be impressed with the importance of
protective laws, and the officers to whom is entrusted the
enforcement of laws should find it unpopular to do anything
else than their whole duty."
--
from "A Little Talk about Michigan Forestry,"
1900
