DEARBORN, Mich. – For years, the Rouge River was among the nation’s dirtiest waterways, little more than a dumping ground in the shadow of the massive Ford industrial complex that churned out cars from Model As to Mustangs.

Today, blue herons and fish have returned, reflecting how much the river’s health has improved. Public outrage and the federal Clean Water Act helped draw money to the project, making it a model for conducting massive cleanups of filthy watersheds.

“We are changing the culture of the whole region,” said Kurt Heise, director of the Wayne County Department of Environment. “We are telling people it’s OK to return to the Rouge River.”

The Rouge, which meanders through heavily developed residential and industrial areas before emptying into the Detroit River, still has problems. Most swimmers avoid it, and heavy rains cause some sewers to overflow into it.

But with industrial pollution under better control and efforts to stem the flow of stormwater, the Rouge is becoming a place to fish, canoe or take a stroll.

“As we’re solving the water quality in the river, the debate now is how do we use it,” said Jim Murray, a community activist and former county environmental official who helped rally government and volunteers.

The Environmental Protection Agency has described some of the collaborative work to restore the Rouge as a “blueprint for success” in improving water quality. Observers from other American cities – and as far away as South Korea and China – have traveled to the Detroit area to learn from the Rouge project.

“They are a national leader,” said Quintin White of the EPA’s Chicago office.

Next month, thousands of volunteers will fan out along the 126-mile river system for Rouge Rescue – an annual springtime cleanup. What started 20 years ago as a day to pull trash and debris from the river now includes efforts to make the river healthier for people and wildlife.

The cleanup project, organizers say, also helps bring residents to a river that for generations was shunned as unsafe. And it illustrates how volunteer efforts, coupled with nearly $1 billion in government spending on major projects, can complement each other.

“It’s been a community-wide effort,” said Murray, the first president and still a board member of Friends of the Rouge. “It’s one they know is long-term. I think people take pride in it. You have to have hope.”

Industries such as Ford Motor Co. that were long blamed for the river’s decline have stepped up efforts to improve it.

Ford spent $2 billion to refurbish its Rouge complex, which now includes a truck plant with living plants on its 10.4-acre roof and other vegetation to soak up stormwater. Vegetation has replaced what once was concrete to ease pollution along some of the roads outside Ford’s facility, just down the river from Henry Ford’s estate.