Both the Ottawa County Road Commission and the City of Zeeland’s stormwater permits are now available for public comment. You can find the permits through the MiWaters system and submit your comments there (see instructions below). Copies of each public notice are provided.

Ottawa County Road Commission Public Notice
City of Zeeland Public Notice

MiWaters Instructions

• Go to https://miwaters.deq.state.mi.us/miwaters/external/home and click on Public Notice Search on the right.
• Click the white bar to the left of search and enter the following permit numbers to view each draft permit and click search.
  • Ottawa County Road Commission = MI0059962
  • City of Zeeland – MI0060218
• Click on the View/Submit Comment button on the right.
• Click on the Documents tab to see all documents associate with the permit. The draft permit is the document titled: NPDES Permit – DRAFT for Public Notice. (Note, you must download a document to view it).
• Add any comments in the Add Comment.

The 2020 Watershed Annual Meeting was held virtually on November 16, 6:30-8:30pm. The meeting included Hope College student research presentations, a report of FY20 accomplishments from the MACC and Project Clarity and an update on Lake Macatawa water quality monitoring from the GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute.

Student presentations included:

Surveying the presence of heavy metals in Lake Macatawa sediment samples
Kaylee DeRoo, Helen Holt, Christian Lundy, and Jacob VanderRoest

Determination of heavy metals accumulation in Earthworms, Lumbricus rubellus, collected from the Macatawa Watershed
Dominic DeVito, Erin Kahn, and Madison Kerber

Assessment of Macro Plastic Pollution in Storm Drain Discharge due to Rain Events in the Holland Area
Kaelyn Lagerwall, Kate Kay, and Alex Vasquez

Presentation Abstracts

The second part of the meeting included:

Project Clarity Annual Report by Dan Callam, ODC Network

Macatawa Watershed Annual Report (presentation) by Kelly Goward, MACC
Macatawa Watershed 2020 Annual Report (publication)

2019 Monitoring Report by Maggie Oudsema, GVSU-AWRI

The MACC office is open, but hours may vary, due to COVID-19 concerns. Staff are working part time in the office and part time remotely from home. Staff can be reached via email (see the staff directory for contact information). The MACC will attempt to hold meetings virtually or in person when possible, though, some meetings may need to be canceled or postponed. Please call to confirm any meetings you have on your calendars. The purpose of these decisions is to ensure we’re doing all we can to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19.

For more information regarding the virus:

Ottawa County Department of Public Health (OCDPH)
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)