MONROE — In the 18th century, the stream known today as the River Raisin was called La Riviere aux Raisins by French settlers smitten by its beauty — most notably a large abundance of wild grapes along its shoreline.

Before that, Native Americans called it Nummaseppe, which means “River of Sturgeon.”

By any account, the River Raisin was a much different waterway than the post-Industrial Revolution image it held for years as a wasteland polluted by carcinogenic chemicals and heavy metals.

IN PICTURES: Monroe’s River Raisin

But now, with $23 million of improvements since 2012 and plans for $30 million to remove toxic chemicals in its riverbed near the closed Ford Motor Co. parts plant this summer, the Raisin is giving Monroe city and county officials hope for a brighter future.

The river may begin a new chapter by year’s end.

If all of the digging and dredging near the Ford plant yields the results anticipated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Raisin will enter a healing and monitoring phase for about three to five years.

Then, perhaps five to 10 years from now, the river’s lower 2.6 miles — where it flows through Monroe’s industrial zone out to western Lake Erie — could be removed from the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission’s list of “areas of concern.” That is a  notorious checklist of the Great Lakes region’s most-toxic and troublesome hot spots. The Raisin has been on that list since 1987.

In all, 43 designated areas, one of which includes the Maumee and Ottawa rivers, were originally listed, including 31 in the United States and 12 in Canada.

Only seven — four in the United States and three in Canada — have been removed during the past 39 years, said Raj Bejankiwar, an IJC scientist involved in the remediation effort.

“We would like to think in a few years we will be delisting the River Raisin,” said Chris Korleski, U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office director.

Kayaking, canoeing, fly fishing, and other water recreation have grown in popularity along undeveloped parts of the river west of Monroe. But many people agree its legacy as an industrial downtown sewer has been hard to shake.

Fish-consumption advisories will likely remain in effect for years in the most polluted areas.

A Monroe retired businessmen, Richard Micka, who grew up in the city and has lived there for all of his 78 years, confesses that residents “have never really tied themselves to the river.”

“It’s just been there,” he said, explaining that its marshes and wetlands have been coveted by fishermen and duck hunters — but not the portion that flowed through the city.

Like a lot of waterways, perceptions of the Raisin River change on geography.

Though the lower 2.6 miles have garnered the lion’s share of attention, its watershed encompasses 1,072 square miles.

People might be surprised to learn the River Raisin — a western Lake Erie tributary far less talked about than the Maumee, Detroit, or Sandusky rivers — is roughly as big as Rhode Island. Rising in Fulton County, it meanders through Jackson, Hillsdale, Washtenaw, and Lenawee counties before picking up steam and emptying into Lake Erie through Monroe County. Its length has been estimated to be anywhere from 135 to 150 miles.

The Battle of the River Raisin was the United States’ bloodiest War of 1812 defeat and the greatest victory for Tecumseh’s American Indian confederation. “Remember the Raisin” became the American rallying cry after that.

After being declared a state historic site in 1956, the riverfront battlefield was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. On Oct. 22, 2010, the River Raisin National Battlefield Park opened.

Much of the $23 million in river improvements have gone to cleaning up polychlorinated biphenyls and other industrial chemicals in the riverbed. But a lot also have gone into removing dams and creating fish passages.

Locals look forward to the return of many species — perhaps even the iconic lake sturgeon — now that fish can move across the River Raisin’s lower 23 miles, from Dundee to western Lake Erie, for the first time since the 1930s.

“The significance of this project cannot be overstated,” Melanie Foose, River Raisin Area of Concern Coordinator at the Michigan DEQ, wrote in a 2015 report.

Brian Egen, a member of Monroe’s Commission on the Environment, agreed the possibilities are exciting because the River Raisin “was known historically as a river of lake sturgeon.”

Through conservation efforts, lake sturgeon are establishing a foothold again in the Detroit River. The Toledo Zoo is working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Lake Erie Waterkeeper, and others on a plan to reintroduce them to the Maumee River.

Much of the restoration money has come from the U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which the Obama administration created in 2009. The GLRI has brought $275 million to $500 million a year to Great Lakes projects.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would extend the program at least five years.

Officials were hopeful Ford’s first remediation effort in the late 1990s would have set the Raisin toward being delisted as an area of concern. But PCB contamination was more pervasive than originally thought, partly because of the river’s uniquely hard and tough bottom.

Under a deal with the U.S. government, Ford, which halted production in Monroe in 2008, has agreed to pick up all but $9.5 million of the cleanup cost.

That’s about $20.5 million if the project comes in on its anticipated $30 million budget. Most of the federal contribution is coming from the GLRI. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality share comes to about $600,000, Mr. Korleski said.

“We hope it will be the last phase,” said Barry LaRoy, Monroe’s water and waste water director.

The River Raisin is home to some amazing plants, such as the American Lotus that blooms in early summer. But it also has been overrun by such invasive species as the Flowering Rush.

Mr. LaRoy and others agree a cleaner River Raisin could help Monroe with future marketing and branding campaigns.

“It’s all going to add to the quality of life,” Mr. Egen said. “It certainly could put [Monroe] on the map as a ‘Pure Michigan’ stop for a day.”

Information about the River Raisin’s history, legacy pollution, and environmental restoration efforts can be found in a 36-page booklet the city recently published with a grant from the eight-state Great Lakes Commission, the Michigan DEQ, and the GLRI. Free booklets are available at Monroe City Hall, 120 E. First St.

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published May 9, 2016, 4:00 a.m.