Rouge River AOC PAC Support

Rouge River Advisory Council (RRAC) Support

The Alliance of Rouge Communities (ARC) is the governing body for the Rouge River Watershed communities and has served as fiduciary and staff support to the RRAC through the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) PAC support project funding since 2009.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) of 1978 between the United States and Canada established 43 Area of Concerns (AOCs) within the Great Lakes watershed and 14 in Michigan, including the Rouge River. The GLWQA requires the development of a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for each AOC. A RAP notes problems in the AOC, identifies the causes and sources of pollutants of concern, and determines what actions are needed to correct the problems and to prevent future ones. It also lists potential “use impairments” - undesirable conditions that restrict how the water resource can be used.

The mission of the RRAC is to assist in the attainment of the goals of the RAP by enhancing public awareness and education concerning RAP issues, providing a mechanism for the participation of all interested parties, seeking broad-based support for the RAP update, assisting in implementation of the Rouge RAP, and independently evaluating progress toward the goal of restoring designated uses and delisting the Rouge River watershed as an AOC.

In 2008, the RRAC developed the Delisting Targets for Fish and Wildlife Habitat & Population Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) for the Rouge River AOC. In 2014, RRAC formally began development of the Rouge River AOC Habitat Restoration Projects List. This list includes projects that have been completed and those that will need to be completed in order to achieve the associated goal of fish and wildlife habitat and fish and wildlife populations BUIs removal. This list was approved by both the State of Michigan and the USEPA in 2018 and is being used to prioritize future funding for removal of the AOC’s habitat-related BUIs. This project allows the RRAC to expand project descriptions and concepts for several projects on the list.