Swim it, Liz!

This Saturday, an Ann Arbor woman will begin swimming our local river, the Huron, from end to end. Over 100 miles in all. . And this at the age of 60!

Liz Elling expects to swim the Huron's crescent-shaped course, from the far northwest fringe of surburban Detroit to Lake Erie, in two weeks. She's making this journey to raise awareness of both the river's improving water quality and some of its ongoing problems. More about her adventure here.

I think this is great, and will send along a little check to support her (I wonder if I could get her to wear an FTR logo patch on her wetsuit...of course, I don't have a logo, and I'm sure she's got enough on her mind.) I don't fish it as often as I should, but I am fond of the Huron. It's the region's greatest natural asset, IMO, surprisingly beautiful (with long, undeveloped stretches) and biologically rich for a metropolitan stream. Unlike nearly every river in lower Michigan, it actually has rapids! That still delights this flatland boy.

Still, whenever I go there, I am wary about touching the water. I reflexively think of most of our southern Michigan rivers (and most other rivers in urban or agricultural areas) as unsafe, too laden with pollutants and harmful bacteria to allow much direct contact, or fish consumption. This is in fact the conventional wisdom about them. There are some streams that fit their folkloric profile (especially my native Kalamazoo, with its PCB-infused sediments), but probably fewer than I tend to think. Michigan fish consumption guidelines contain no restrictions on fish from the Huron mainstream, though they do warn against eating certain kinds of fish from the reservoirs along its length.

I think of lakes as cleaner than rivers (few were ever used as industrial waste disposals), but the state recommends no more than one meal per week of most game and pan fish from ANY inland lake. I don't have a problem swimming in most lakes, but I would never have taken a dip in the Huron before hearing of Liz's upcoming swim. I was never pining for one anyway and I'm still not--I'm not much of a swimmer--but I wouldn't be afraid to if the occasion arose. So I guess LIz has driven home her point with at least one watershed dweller.