Lowering of Belleville Lake in past caused problems, opportunities

Last week, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees voted in favor of a plan by Supervisor Kevin McNamara to lower Belleville Lake so residents and the township can repair docks and seawalls and clean up the lake.
It is tentatively planned for September or October, 2019, when the Ford Lake Dam will close off the flow of the Huron River into Belleville Lake and French Landing Dam will open its gates to let the water empty out.
Matthew Best, deputy director of the VBT planning and economic development department, said the plan would be to lower the lake three to seven feet and maybe more. Best is the township’s environmental expert.
Belleville Lake was formed in 1925 when Detroit Edison dammed up the river at French Landing. It has been lowered several times over the years and always with problems of shifting shorelines caused by the drying up of the soil.
In September of 1973, the Department of Natural Resources lowered the lake as part of its plan to poison the “trash fish” (mainly carp) in the lake that were crowding out game fish. The DNR was paying for the project which would end up with the planting of game fish and an estimated $1.5 million increase in recreational revenue for VBT and the City of Belleville, which surround the lake.
On Sept. 17, the draining started and the lake level had dropped about 11 feet of the 30-32 feet planned when it was halted because there were partial collapses of the embankment along a portion of Belleville Road at the bridge and Denton Road at that bridge.
The shifting embankment opened up a 150’ fissure along Belleville Road near the entrance to the bridge.
The two bridges were closed to traffic because they were deemed unsafe and Belleville residents heading to I-94 had a six-mile-long detour.
As, the earthen embankment supporting the road shifted, a section dropped about three feet and opened a cut about eight inches wide, according to William Mascaro, an engineer with the Wayne County Road Commission.
Belleville Mayor Royce E. Smith criticized the DNR’s method of operation and in particular for not having inspected the two bridge structures before initiating the drainage project.
The collapsing embankment also threated to burst the 8” gas line into the city which ran about four feet beneath the fissure. Michigan Consolidated Gas Company officials feared that shifting earth would pressure the main to the breaking point.
Gas company crews worked all day Sept. 24 to uncover the main and relieve pressures on the line from the shifting earth. Work crews looped steel cables around the main and secured them to guard rails on the other side of the roadway.
Officials feared further drainage would undermine the roadbed itself.
DNR manager for Southern Michigan William Laycock said his department wanted to complete the lake draining project if further damage appeared unlikely. He said his department was aware that the loss of water pressure against the shoreline could cause the embankment to shift
He said the DNR had been advised that by draining the lake gradually the possibilities of earth collapsing would be minimized. He said that is why the DNR planned to drop the lake gradually over a two-week period from mid-September to early October.
The plan had been to take the lake level down to the stream bed and then poison the fish with rotenone. It would take less poison if there was less water.
Then, they would clean out the trash fish, fill the lake, and plant game fish.
While officials decided what to do, hundreds of local residents went out to look at what was uncovered so far, including a cement road, the old Belleville Road that crossed the Huron River in the early days before there was a lake.
The cement road had something scratched into the concrete, apparently by those who laid it. It said: “Clark & Son, July 1904.” Youngsters had fun riding their bikes on the newly discovered, old road.
The west end of Belleville Lake was drained to the bottom.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department reported recovering several safes, numerous handguns and rifles, a car stolen three years earlier, and many boats, including one with a 50 horsepower motor attached. Many cars and pieces of cars were found, as well.
Visitors took lots of pictures of what they found under the lake, which included a wheelchair, tree stumps, and lots of cans, glass, and other debris. Some used small boats or canoes to travel the river way and water still left in the lake.
At first, the project was cancelled and then reinstated after a meeting was organized by local people to meet with the DNR at Belleville High School auditorium. It was attended by more than 850 people supporting the project.
It was started. The first use of a helicopter in Michigan to assist in a lake treatment allowed the rotenone to be sprayed into otherwise inaccessible areas of the lake. The helicopter was also used as a spotter and coordinator during the fish kill. The rest of the rotenone was dumped out of barrels into the backwash of boats.
Because of the anticipated large kill of rough fish, an organized dead fish pick-up program was planned. Fisheries’ personnel enlisted the aid of 40 prison trustees, township workers, National Guardsmen, local businesses, schools and school children, sportsmen clubs, and interested citizens.
Belleville High School officials declared a “Cleanup Day” allowing some 400 students to help out.
Some 850,000 pounds of carcasses were hauled to the landfill, with 95% being carp.
Fish restocking began immediately after detoxification of the lake one week after the 11 days of cleanup ended.
In 1973 fall fingerling walleye, tiger muskellunge, largemouth bass, bluegills, and bluegill-green sunfish hybrids were planted. Fathead minnow were stocked to establish a forage base and fall fingerling rainbows were planted to provide fishing in 1974.
In 1974, walleye and northern pike were introduced via fry plants and second plantings of rainbows, largemouth bass and bluegills were made. Also introduced were pumpkinseed, black crappie, channel catfish and white bass. In 1975 additional stockings were made.
Extensive creel census in 1975 and 1976 documented the recreational fishing effort to be a success.
In May 2012 a fish survey was conducted by the DNR on Belleville Lake and 27 species were identified. Bluegills were the most abundant species, but they were small, with less than 20% over seven inches. Gizzard shad were the second most abundant species and 90% were over nine inches. Channel catfish ranked third in abundance and ranged from seven to 27 inches.
Detroit Edison owned the lake during the fish-kill project. Although it had agreed to turn over the lake, without charge, to VBT in January 1973, Edison asked for another year and didn’t turn it over until January, 1974. The township assumed control of the dam at the same time.
Local residents have reported that Detroit Edison used to lower the lake for about two feet for a short time each summer to allow people to maintain their docks and seawalls.
Accidental poisoning of fish
Actually, the story on lake lowering starts on May 13, 1973 when a similar DNR killing of fish for a restocking effort at Ford Lake led to an accident that killed fish in Belleville Lake, just downstream.
The opening of Ford Lake dam gates, reportedly by accident, led to the killing of 240,000-350,000 pounds of fish that had to be hauled out of Belleville Lake.
Property owners along Belleville Lake were upset when thousands of dead fish began rising to the top of the lake.
Edward Doane, owner of Doane’s Bait Shop on North Liberty Street in Belleville, said he lost $300 worth of bait when the poisoned lake water came into his bait tanks from the lake. The DNR promised to reimburse him for the bait.
After this accident, the DNR temporarily banned the use of rotenone in the state. The poison suffocates the fish by cutting off the oxygen supply to their gills and was said to be safe for animals and humans.
Twenty-three crew members from the DNR, 30 prison trustees from Camp Pontiac, and hundreds of local volunteers from Belleville and Van Buren Township spent several days cleaning up 120 tons of dead fish. This was just four months before the planned fish kill on Belleville Lake.
The lake’s water level was lowered a little over four feet to permit the collection of the fish in May.
French Landing Dam repairs
Belleville Lake was also lowered in 1979 to facilitate repairs to French Landing Dam.
The Wayne County Road Commission filed for a restraining order on Dec. 6, 1979 to stop VBT officials from further draining the lake, claiming it was damaging three highway causeways at Denton, Belleville, and Haggerty roads.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Roman S. Gribbs granted the restraining order and then lifted it, advising the road commission to continue monitoring the bridges and to return to court if damage is evident.
The township set up a 24-hour hotline for reporting damage caused by the project.
The lake was being lowered by about the 18 feet needed to make the necessary repairs on the 50-year-old dam. The project was being financed by a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and included a training program for unemployed youths.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered VBT to lower the water level in the impoundment due to structural deficiencies in the arch walls. The dam was necessary to keep water in Belleville Lake at the proper depth.
Once the dam was repaired VBT went on to purchase generators and make it into an operating power station again, with electricity sold to Detroit Edison.
Boating was banned during the lake lowering. The lake’s normal summer elevation of 650 feet above sea level was to be dropped to 646 feet Nov. 11, 642 feet Nov. 15, and then to 632 feet, the stopping-off place, on Dec. 1.
A report in the Belleville Enterprise said, “With the average depth reported at 16-17 feet, a substantial portion of the lake will be exposed, will dry out and become hard during the winter months.”
Lakefront property owners were advised that a permit from the state DNR was needed for any of the following: construction or major reconstruction work, dredging, filling, or removal of any stumps within the normal summer water level.
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Information for this story came from newspaper reports published in The Belleville Enterprise, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Ypsilanti Press, and from Michigan Department of Natural Resources and DNR Lake Erie Management Unit reports.