Lowell, the river and riverine environment is clearner than it's been in decades. I afraid you may be falling into some revisionist history, here. In fact, Fighting Island, in particular, is cleaner than it's been in years.
One of the most annoying things about the region is reverence of sentimentality so strongly that it actually creates false or exaggerated memories of the past. Up until relatively recently, the Detroit River was quite literally a dump. We've come a long way, and I don't want old-timers to forget that. The river was, in fact, much more dirty in your "idyllic, childhood summers" than in my relatively short time here on earth.
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