LSSU Professor Dave Szlag (from left) and students B.J. Pelkey and Jesse Therien presented research about water conditions in the Les Cheneaux Islands Tuesday, April 19.

The results were presented Tuesday night, April 19, at Les Cheneaux Community Schools in Cedarville by LSSU students Steve Waters, B.J. Pelkey, and Jesse Therien and Professor Dave Szlag, who stressed that their testing is not conclusive and that the township should continue to monitor its water quality.

Last year, Mr. Walters tested the groundwater at the old Clark Township landfill, which was closed in 1993, and he detected no evidence of water table contamination, either at the site or at the wells of nearby homes.

Because there is no plastic or clay liner under the landfill, there is a potential for hazardous materials to drain into the water table, but a clay cap over the top, said Mr. Szlag, helps keep water from seeping into the landfill, which is good.

"The cap helps a lot to keep water from getting in and transporting waste," said Professor Szlag, who presented the landfill test results for Mr. Walters. "Basically, what we were looking for were heavy metals – lead, cadmium, chromium – because of their impacts on human health. We're also concerned about nitrates,” which, in high concentrations, can reduce the capacity for blood to carry oxygen in infants and leads to Blue Baby Syndrome.

Tests, he said, did not reveal significant amounts of the metals, but did show significant hardness. Further tests will prove whether significant amounts of nitrates are present in the water. Students also tested for E. coli bacteria and found none.

"Everything was virtually below the metal detection levels and way below contaminant maximums, so from a heavy metal detecting point, it's good news," Mr. Szlag said. "For the scope of the project, at least in the wells, there seems to be no heavy metal or bacteria issues.”

Students sampled from four test wells at the landfill, which Prof. Szlag said are only 20 feet deep, and, thus, may not provide a complete picture of water quality at the site. He recommended test wells of varying depths at the landfill, and testing for the presence of petroleum products.

LSSU will test the existing wells every other fall as a school project.

Students also tested well water at residences near the landfill and didn't find contamination related to the landfill, although Mr. Szlag recommended regular testing of residential wells, too.

"The only way to nail down what's there is to do a lot of testing," he said.

Mr. Szlag said the area's porous limestone can promote groundwater contamination. Clark Township has many wells that are contaminated with bacteria because of this, he said.

In another project, student B.J. Pelkey said he found no harmful bacteria in water samples he took from Cedarville Bay and Pearson Creek and the water there is safe for drinking and recreational use.

He set out to determine whether the bay had significant levels of phosphorus, chlorophyll, coliforms, or E. coli. Coliforms are a group of generally harmless bacteria that may come from feces or the environment in general, while one coliform, Escherichia coli or E. coli, is used as an indicator of whether water is polluted by feces. Some types of E. coli can make humans sick if they consume it, so when E. coli levels are high at beaches, the State of Michigan often restricts swimming there. Resident concern over heavy recreational use and treated wastewater discharge in Cedarville Bay prompted Mr. Pelkey's work.

Coliform and E. coli levels, he said, were well below the state health standards, and E. coli concentration was highest in areas where the predominant land use was farming and forest. Levels for other types of coliform were highest in areas where there were a lot of trees near the water.

Student Jesse Therien said further testing is needed to determine just how much of the phosphorus in Cedarville Bay is contributed from Pearson Creek. He tested phosphorus levels there because of public concern that Cedarville Bay is being loaded with phosphorus from treated wastewater discharge in the bay. Phosphorus encourages plant growth and is suspected of causing heavy weed growth in the bay. The sites he tested downstream from the Clark Township wastewater treatment plant had the highest levels of phosphorus.

"There is a trend that October shows the highest levels of concentration of phosphorus," Mr. Therien said, noting that filtered and treated wastewater is discharged from the wastewater treatment ponds twice a year, and October is one of those times.

Phosphorus levels dissipated in the months following a discharge, he said.

"Although we can say that Pearson Creek is contributing to the amount of phosphorus in Cedarville Bay,” he concluded, “we can't say how much it's contributing without further testing."

All of the student work was funded by a $1,500 grant from the Les Cheneaux Community Foundation and a $500 grant from the Islands Association, awarded to the Les Cheneaux Watershed Council to promote youth involvement in monitoring environmental health, with an emphasis on water quality.

"The grants were given with the purpose of engaging youth in gathering information and assessing water quality within the watershed," said Watershed Council member Pat Carr, who organized some of the work performed by students.

The Alternative Community Education school of Cedarville analyzed the chemistry of streams and surveyed marsh insects in conjunction with the LSSU study.

Field research is one of the requirements for science degrees at the university and Clark Township has provided a laboratory for students for more than a decade.

Les Cheneaux Watershed Council member Robert Smith said the council plans to look at the results and determine whether the community should consider action or further testing.

"It's a good starting point, and it's raised some really good questions," he said.