Drone brings technology to assist stream cleanup
A drone's eye view of litter gave high-tech help to the nonprofit Friends of the Detroit River – while it brought smiles to Downriver firefighters who needed flight time on their pilot licenses.
“It was a win-win,” said McKenzi Walisczek, the nonprofit's stewardship director. The drone charted litter along Ecorse Creek, helping Walisczek decide where to target this summer's volunteer trash cleanups.
In years past, the spring litter survey of Ecorse Creek was done on foot and by kayak. That took Friends of the Detroit River four to five days. This time, a drone did it in half a day. And did it better, because the pilot's view screen listed latitude and longitude. That meant Walisczek could pinpoint where to map the sites of construction debris, shopping carts, old tires and more.
Starting on a slow-moving stretch of the stream, the drone filmed more than 4 miles. A creek may sound trivial amid Michigan's array of big lakes and rivers but Ecorse Creek, no wider than a traffic lane for much of its length, drains dozens of square miles in key Downriver areas. Then it dumps pollution and litter straight into the Detroit River, untreated. Along the way, it often floods streets and basements during rainstorms.
Now, like countless other smallish streams in metro Detroit, Ecorse Creek is getting more attention, as local, regional and state leaders wrestle with the need to manage stormwater and make it cleaner while keeping it out of neighborhoods. At the same time, groups like Friends of the Detroit River want to revive the natural flow and beauty of metro Detroit's waterways, large and small, to bring back these places for fishing, paddling and strolling on waterside paths.
“We stand still and the drone does all the work,” Walisczek said, jotting down notes and coordinates as she stood beside the drone pilot. “I look for culverts that are disconnected and trees down that stop the water flow. When it stops, that's poor water quality for the fish and wildlife.”
The drone, a $10,000 model, belongs to the Downriver Special Operations Fire Services, a mutual aid group of small fire departments that share this aircraft the size of a small suitcase. It can save lives and help put out fires, said Dan Mercure, chief of the Rockwood Fire Department.
“We can fly over a big fire and see where to put water on it. And we have an infrared sensor on it, so when a fire's out we can fly over and find hot spots” that need more soaking, Mercure said.
The same sensor “can find a child lost in the woods” by detecting body heat, he said.
Flying the drone over Ecorse Creek was firefighter Eric Poet of the Huron Township Fire Department and giving direction was Jerry Hollis, a fire captain with the Wayne County Airport Authority and team coordinator with the Downriver Logistics Team.
“If you see debris, stop and we'll zoom in,” Hollis told Poet.
Ultimately, people will haul debris from the water and scour the creek banks for more this summer. The city of Detroit also announced that it would test a robot called BeBot on Belle Isle Beach.