In early October Jackson residents living next to the Cascades Falls Park got a welcome surprise. They received an email about state funding and one line was a dream come true. It read, “Shirkey said the budget measure passed by the Senate includes $1 million for a Cascades Ponds dredging project to improve a beloved recreation spot."
The residents have been lobbying their county officials for years to dredge out the dammed up lagoons to stop flooding their neighborhood. So finally, the county had enlisted the aid of a friendly state politician, who helped push through funding.
In fact basement flooding has become so bad by 2019 that residents submitted photos of severe damage to the County Board. In some cases living room walls had split up the middle, In another, the main support beams had cracked the entire length of the home. Homes were settling, walls cracking. Mold was making people very sick. Property values plummeted.
The drainage stream for these five inter connected lagoons, a tributary to the Grand River, had been dammed up over a number of years. The last culvert pipe was closed off around 2000. But nearby residents had no clue. When a neighbor’s basement was flooded in 2005 by rising groundwater, old city storm sewers were faulted.
As luck would have it, one local resident in the flooded neighborhood had joined Sierra Club. She and another local member volunteered to help county residents to stop a factory farm (a CAFO) from operating in a wetland. They learned how to organize the community living around the CAFO site. With input from MI Sierra Club leaders, they learned about the DEQ, (now EGLE) an agency responsible for enforcing environmental laws, like the NPDES permit. They helped township residents write up and practice giving public comments at loud and raucous township meetings. Finally the issue came to a head, and went before a judge. The CAFO was still able to open, but had to move all operations away from the wetlands and faced tougher restrictions. The Sierra Club members involved had completed their first crash course on community activism.
So when one club member's home near the park was flooded, the next project was born. In 2018, Fix the Cascade Park Lagoons Neighborhood Group was formed. Neighbors were organized, submitted public comments and documentation. Then a recommendation from MI Sierra Club helped to find legal help. Laws were researched and the park was found to be in violation for not having any NPDES permits for over 25 years of discharges, and the park water attractions were shut down.
