West Branch Paint Creek Rehabilitation Erosion Reduction using Hydrologic, Hydraulic and Physical Channel Modifications

The West Branch Paint Creek, a 4-mile long watercourse with a watershed area of 5 square miles located in Ypsilanti, Michigan, is a tributary to one of the last remaining cold water streams in southeast Michigan. The channel has been subjected to an increased frequency of bank full events due to changing agricultural practices and increases in impervious area within the watershed. This has resulted in incising of the channel and bank failure throughout the lower reaches of the watercourse. These conditions have adversely affected the aquatic ecosystem and channel bank vegetation. Riparian landowners have also been affected by increases in the frequency of flooding. As part of this project, funded through the office of the Washtenaw County Drain Commissioner (WCDC), the physical characteristics of the West Branch Paint Creek and its watershed were evaluated to determine a series of permanent measures to mitigate bank erosion and reduce the frequency of flooding in the riparian corridor.