Belle Isle is a Michigan State Park found between the borders of the US and Canada on the Detroit River. The park has many acres of green land and beaches, and the Chemistry Club of the University of Detroit Mercy (CCUDM) decided to be a part of its restoration. In January of 2014, our green chemistry chair helped CCUDM to adopt one beach on Belle Isle through Michigan’s Adopt-a-Beach program. The plan was to utilize the beach for possible events for our student chapter, but the beach was extremely dirty and the water was polluted due to civilians’ wasteful habits and sewage dumping into the Detroit River. At the end of UDM’s final exam week, the CCUDM went to Belle Isle to clean up the beach. Club members picked up different types of trash such as plastic and glass bottles, fast food bags, wrappers and an assortment of different types of waste. While we cleaned the beach, our green chemistry chair was trained to use an instrument that could monitor <i>E. coli</i> levels within the Detroit River. With all the effort from our student chapter and the project leadership, we were able to leave our Belle Isle Beach much cleaner than it started. For future events, more students plan to become trained in water refining techniques and to return to maintain the beach.

Cleaning up Belle Isle: A UDM chemistry club project

249th National Meeting (2015)

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