News

Dunes Creek Sees Light of Day

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has received a national award for “daylighting” a portion of Dunes Creek running through Indiana Dunes State Park and emptying into Lake Michigan not far from the park’s beach.

In the early 1930s, the stream had been channeled into a culvert hidden beneath parking lots. (See picture of Dunes Creek discharge.) Restoring the creek to its natural bed and exposing the water to the purifying effect of sunlight has multiple benefits, and earned IDNR the 2006 award from the Association of Conservation Engineers (ACE).

Mike Mycroft, interpretive naturalist and stewardship coordinator at Indiana Dunes State Park, explained the project’s importance. “It has to do with high fecal coliform levels, such as E. coli bacteria, which occur naturally in wilderness areas thanks to the presence of wildlife,” he said. “During high rainfall, the Dunes Creek watershed, which is a little bit over 11 square miles, flushes large amounts of E. coli into the swimming waters adjacent to the pavilion and our swimming beach. Current thinking holds that the more time the stream is exposed to sunlight, the smaller the overall flush of E. coli. It is believed that the creek, when it was shaded over and in a culvert, enabled E. coli to thrive more. So, what we did was to remove an additional 500 feet of culvert.” Mycroft said this will improve water quality before it reaches the lake.

Sharing in the award with IDNR are the designers, The Troyer Group, of Mishawaka, Indiana, its associates, J. F. New, of Walkerton, Indiana, and Gariup Construction Company, of Gary, Indiana.

In a related event, on November 29, 2006, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, partnering with the Porter County Convention, Recreation, and Visitor Commission, celebrated the grand opening of the new Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center near the corner of Indiana Highway 49 and U.S. 20. Positioned at the gateway to the Indiana Dunes region, sponsors hope this center will stimulate even greater usage of the parks, making the Dunes Creek daylighting project all the more significant.

— Kevin P. Murphy