# Sticky  Michigan DEQ vows Grand River restoration support, if not expedience, on tour of Down



## irishmanusa

Aren't "artist's rendering's" lovely.....


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## RAD FISH

:: 200 ton's of rocks and boulders. These " artists " obviously have never seen the winter ice flows that would surely destroy there river art work. Come on.


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## limpinglogan

We should be able to organize and retaliate against this ********.


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## itchn2fish

Community input meetings to start early 2014. Read more here - 
http://www.woodtv.com/news/local/grand-rapids/grand-river-rapids-plans-revealed


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## Tron322

I say just leave it alone, Just as easily as all of you saying the ice dams and movement of the river will move any boulders or whitewater course in the river will also breach that dam eventually.

I don't visit it much, most years only for the fall runs, IMO the east side is damaged, and every winter it will get worse until it starts knocking big chunks of concrete out of weaker areas. Last big Ice dam I remember was in 2005 or 2006. Knocked most of that concrete slab/old road pier in front of the museum back into the river, eventually same thing is gonna happen to the dam.


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## RAD FISH

Tron322 said:


> I say just leave it alone, Just as easily as all of you saying the ice dams and movement of the river will move any boulders or whitewater course in the river will also breach that dam eventually.
> 
> I don't visit it much, most years only for the fall runs, IMO the east side is damaged, and every winter it will get worse until it starts knocking big chunks of concrete out of weaker areas. Last big Ice dam I remember was in 2005 or 2006. Knocked most of that concrete slab/old road pier in front of the museum back into the river, eventually same thing is gonna happen to the dam.



:: Last spring was the 2nd biggest flood in the recorded history of the Grand. The flood did absolutely nothing to the dam itself. It did F up the observation deck on the east side. When they built that deck some years ago me and an oldtimer (Roy) watched the process of this every day. For the completion of this build they put a S load of boulders just below the dam to in the engineers plan would keep the water from getting underneath his build and washing it out. Me and Roy watched them doing this, saying to each other most all of them rocks will end up in the river from the first winter ice flow. Roy was PO'ed to say the least and started yelling at the engineer witch was onsite watching. All that he had to say was "them rocks aren't going anywhere". Roy in return called him a complete idiot to put it lightly. First winter a large amount of the rocks (SURPRISE) ended up the river. This thing was built in I believe 2001 as part of the east side restoration project. By around 5-6 years nearly ever boulder was washed into the river. During last springs flood the water washed under the walk way to the deck and collapsed a large portion of the walk. This summer a large amount of cement was formed in place of where the boulders used to be. By the way the city refused to pay a large portion to the contracters of the eastside restoration project because the city was not satisfied and believed it wasn't finished. 

:: As said above in 2005-6 the Grand had the largest ice jam I believe ever. This massive ice jam did absolutely nothing to the dam itself. If you didn't see it maybe someone can post some pics of it. The ice was stacked up well above the dam and I would say about 30-40 feet up the I-96 bridge pillars. If you've ever seen and wondered how somebody painted there initials that far up the first pillar from the east side, one of the young local fishermen and a friend walked across the ice at this time to do that (absolutely FN crazy dangerous and ridiculously stupid move). That massive jam surprisingly didn't do much damage to the downtown stretch of the Grand. It did knock over the giant rock that stood in front of the museum for decades as said above.

::So I say like mentioned above instead of spending 23 mil why not wait until mother nature takes it out. Because that dam is so old its bound to fall apart any day now.lol Years ago the city said they will never pay to have the dam removed and that it will not be rebuilt or repaired if it ever comes down from a natural cause. That was a few city Mayor's ago so I don't know if that still the stands.lol

:: I believe a little known fact for ya that most but some old timers don't know is that when the dam was built the river was bigger across than it is now. The dam used to stretch almost to across Menroe street on the east side. I was told this by Roy when they put in the new boat launch and the construction crew dug down and hit the dam. I'm not sure how much wider it was on the west side. One things for sure the fish ladder was built on top of the dam, you can see that.


:: I've mentioned this before the DNR can't even get anywhere with trying to get some of the much smaller and in danger of falling a part dams removed. So why on earth would any government or foundation pay to have this much bigger and safer dam removed. I won't even start on how I feel about the kayak course or any of the insane reasons dam removal has been proposed.

:: THE 6TH STREET DAM WILL NOT BE REMOVED during at least our lifetime.


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## itchn2fish




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## itchn2fish

ANYTHING NEW??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## itchn2fish

http://grandrapidswhitewater.org/public-process/
GRWW is committed to a transparent, adaptive process. The current phase has focused on presentations to the public and meetings with the stakeholder group.

In 2012, GRWW representatives began meeting with user groups, community leaders, and government officials to refine its understanding of the opportunities and constraints and to continue to assess the public interest and philanthropic support. For example, in these informal meetings, important issues were identified that are associated with maintaining and enhancing river flows and levels for rowers and property owners upstream and downstream; maintaining and enhancing sport fishing opportunities and access; and enhancing opportunities for river access for disabled individuals and the general public and the associated public safety concerns.

Stakeholders include individuals, fishermen and representatives from rowing and paddling clubs, environmental groups, businesses, foundations, Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, the Grand Rapids Urban League, West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Trout Unlimited, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Valley State University, Aquinas College, Michigan State University, the West Michigan Strategic Alliance, The Right Place, Experience Grand Rapids, the Downtown Development Authority, Kent County Conservation District, Kent County, the State of Michigan, and the City of Grand Rapids.

See our Documents page for more detailed information.

The next phase of public process is currently being designed by the city planning office to involve the community in the design of the river corridor; both wet and dry. GRWW has, and will continue to focus on wet.

Join us. Become an advocate for the health of the Grand River. Read the Grand Rapids Whitewater blog, or visit Grand Rapids Whitewater on Facebook.


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## slowpaya

fox 17 news said there were going to be several meetings on the dam removal.funding was available because of the flood of 2012(I thinkthat was when riverbobs feet got wet)lyons is scheduled for next year.itll be a straight shot from lake mich to weber dam.walleye fishing will get better,sturgeon maybe will make a comeback.


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## Trevor17

slowpaya said:


> fox 17 news said there were going to be several meetings on the dam removal.funding was available because of the flood of 2012(I thinkthat was when riverbobs feet got wet)lyons is scheduled for next year.itll be a straight shot from lake mich to weber dam.walleye fishing will get better,sturgeon maybe will make a comeback.


I wonder how much more fishing pressure will be at Weber once Lyons in removed and the possibility of 6th street being removed


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## slowpaya

everybody from grand rapids lol ...its just a matter of time,it will at least be cut off and breached. ill bet they will get pretty serious once lyons is done.


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## slowpaya

m live has some recent articles but I cant move them ,somebody with more tech savvy may be able to.sounds like they plan on starting in 2017.take out(or modify)the dams and install one upriver(lol).may take 5 or 10 or 15 yrs to complete.permits to be filed this year.funding has been acquired.Save Our Snuffbox


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## slowpaya

lyons dam has a 10x10 chunk of concrete(yikes) that slid down about a third way out from ladder,it don't look good,time for it to go


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## john decker

you know I cant believe they are even considering doing this downtown.it is already known through out the Midwest as a world class fishery.i caught a 21 lb brown trout there a few yrs back,people fly half way around the world to catch fish like that and we have it in our back yard.now you have to add a lamprey barrier,ya those work really well.all for some kayakers.I wonder how many times per week the fire dept will have to rescue some idiot klinging to a mid stream boulder.to me it shows just how out of touch with reality our gov./city leaders are.save the dam/fishladder.


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## riverbob

I would hope that after the ice jam we had down town this year, that they (the restoration people) would go back to the drawing board, n do some more thinkin, the jam we had was caused by just a few cold nights n to many bridges it effected the grand all the way up river past the rouge, if the jam would of lasted just a few more hours, me n all the people living above the dam would still be drying out n waiting for our insurance money, to rebuild (there's enough stuff going across the river now (bridges) with out flipping in a few more rock to make white water and more ice jams


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## KMS

The Sunday press has an article on the dredging of the Grand River from downtown to the bass river. The sports people must step up and not let this get going at all. I cannot understand why these developers think they can play God. It will only hurt the environment, not help it. To much money will get wasted. The river doesn't need power boats like water skiing boats, pontoons, or race boats powering up and down the river like it is US131.


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## Sparky23

Think its funny that there now talking about restoring the rapids. Then dredging from charlies crab all the way to grand haven. Just shows that it only jas to do with special interests and nothing to do with restoring the river.


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## steeler

I have yet to see a write-up on how this project will affect the habitat and runs of anadromous fish. All seem focused on kayakers and the like.

Sent from my moto g(7) using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## riverbob

was out dragging the river, for a pole that I lost before the flood, n heard some scuttlebutt, about the dam project being called off, is there any truth to what I heard?


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