Berrien County officials working to clean-up Ox Creek

ST. JOSEPH, Mich – Ox creek will see major changes in the years to come.

The Berrien County Commissioners approved a grant to clean-up the polluted creek.

“I think it’s a good idea, they definitely need to do something about it, it’s polluting our water” Tommy Jones who lives near Ox Creek said.

The approved project is projected to cost $1.2 million dollars of which a grant was received for $743,000, which will be matched up to $528,000.

Berrien County Drain Commissioner Christopher Quattrin says the clean-up won’t happen overnight.

“Projects like these take time, if you look at it it was 2006 when they started looking at fixing the drain there so it takes time to do these projects and they don’t happen overnight” Quattrin said.

Quattrin’s commission is partnering with the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission and is also interested in working with M-Dot on the project that they hope will begin in 2019.

Quattrin says the clean-up will benefit everyone in the area.

“The farmers are going to be able to benefit from less flooding, there’s some businesses up there that they’ve had some flooding problems along meadowbrook so they’ll be able to benefit from that and then of course the downstream around Napier by cleaning that stretch up we will be able to ensure that we’re getting clean water down into the paw paw river which then discharges into St. Joe then plumes out into our beaches” Quattrin said.

There isn’t a completion date but work is expected to begin in 2019 and is expected to last a “few years.”