- Friday, October 2, 2015
- 1:30 PM–2:30 PM
- Science Building 010
Chris Muller, Grand Rapids Whitewater A commercial real estate developer whose business, M Retail, specializes in creating trendy retail spaces that promote sustainability.
The river loses 18 feet of elevation over two miles as it moves through downtown, but the rapids this formed were squelched 150 years ago after a large dam was built to run a logging mill and the riverbed was dredged. But the city now has plans to return the rapids by removing the dam (as well as four smaller dams) and restoring the riverbed by depositing 100,000 tons of boulders, cobble, and gravel—and the plan has caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).