Currents and related problems at Metropolitan Beach, Lake St. Clair / John C. Ayers.

INTRODUCTION

This study of currents and related problems at Metropolitan
Beach stemmed from specific nuisance problems of 1) flotsam
arriving under southwest winds on the bathing beach at Metropolitan
Beach in Macomb County, 2) a grey "ooze" which in calm periods
settles from the water in the bathing area, and 3) migration of
littoral sand bars which might interfere with the channel(s) from
a proposed new boat lagoon at the west end of the Metropolitan
Beach property.
The basic phenomena underlying all three of the specific
problems are 1) the alongshore water-currents (which deliver flotsam and ooze and which are the transporting medium of the littoral
sand transport), 2) the currents of Lake St. Clair outside the
immediate area of the Beach (which feed both water and extraneous
materials into the alongshore currents), and 3) the winds that
provide driving force for both sets of currents.
The opening of the Southeast Bend Cutoff of the St. Clair
River South Channel in the spring of 1962 introduced the possibility that the currents of Lake St. Clair might be modified by
re-direction of the local St. Clair River outflow. This possibility was investigated because it might bring the better-quality
St. Clair River water nearer to the Beach than was formerly the
case.

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