Anchor Bay Watershed

The Anchor Bay Watershed Management Plan

was first completed in December 2003, and was

last revised and improved to 319 federal funding status in 2006. An Evaluation of Anchor Bay activities 2003 - 2008 was added to Watershed Plan as an adendum in Jan. 2009. An E.coli Reducation Plan was also developed for St. Clair County's portion of the watershed in 2011. This plan is currently awaiting approval by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) so there may be changes to the final docuement. The final document will be posted when it is approved.       Meldrum Creek, St. Clair County

All of these documents are available on the left

side of this page.

The Anchor Bay Watershed Management Plan and the associated documents examines water quality data from Anchor Bay streams, creeks and drains, and the land use and water quality practices of municipalties and the two counties that comprise the watershed. The Watershed Plan makes recommendations for water quality improvements. Local municipalities and county government agencies are currently implementing recommendations of this plan and call themselves the Anchor Bay Watershed Advisory Group (WAG).

The Anchor Bay WAG is made up of county and local municipal representatives from both Macomb and St. Clair Counties. They meet approximately once per quarter at various locations in the watershed. The public is always welcome to attend and present any water quality concerns at these meetings or just listen. Call us at (810) 987-5306 to find out when and where an upcoming meeting will be occuring.  

The Anchor Bay Watershed is 171 square miles on the edge of the St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair. The bay encompasses 38,000 acres of wetland habitat for fish and wildlife, including St. Johns Marsh, a 2,500-acre coastal wetland located in Clay and Ira Townships. Although much of the flow to the bay comes from the St. Clair River, the major streams draining the watershed include:  

• St. Clair County: Crapau Creek, Marsac Creek, Swan Creek, Meldrum Creek, Beaubien Creek, Swartout Creek, the Marine City Dredge Cut and the Harsen's Island Drain (aka Krispin Drain).
• Macomb County: Auvase Creek, Crapau Creek, and the Salt River.

Data indicates that the Anchor Bay Watershed population will increase 40 percent and households will increase by almost 58% between 2000 and 2030. The anticipated increase in imperviousness and decrease in land areas, which provide natural treatment and storage of storm water runoff, will tend to increase the harmful impacts on the watercourses with respect to flow quantity, sediment, nutrients, bacteria, and chemical contaminants.

As the land develops degredation of local waterways can be prevented by a number of strategies: Best Management Practices to prevent pollution, land use planning tools, such as "Low Impact Development", that limits impervious surfaces and increases filtering and storage of storm water.

Anchor Bay Field Work
Monitoring of water quality and conditions in Anchor Bay and its tributaries was performed as part of developing the Watershed Plan and continues today for evaluating progress. Here are pictures of two creeks we regularily monitor, and a picture of fish sampling that occured in the Bay.