(WXYZ) — Macomb County said that the state will fine and penalize Oakland County over illegal raw sewage discharges into the Red Run Drain
County officials had called for change after 1.2 million gallons of raw sewage were released from Oakland County to Macomb County back in April.
Watch below: Tensions rise between Oakland, Macomb counties over raw sewage release
A letter sent by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, dated June 27, said EGLE is "pursuing an escalated enforcement action" over the releases.
According to the letter, EGLE requests that by July 28, the county shall:
- Review hydraulic models of the sewers to identify areas of high infiltration and inflow
- Evaluate the system to identify capacities, restrictions, and limitations upstream and downstream of the Facility that could potentially impact the HGL within the overflow chamber
- Identify the status and impact that includes modeling results of implementing operational changes within flow distribution in the George W Kuhn Drainage District
- Provide a plan to evaluate the interactions between the GLWA system and the Facility, to identify opportunities for improvement in either or both systems to eliminate these SSOs, and to report the results of this work to EGLE for review
State will fine and penalize Oakland County for continued raw sewage discharges
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy will fine and penalize Oakland County for repeated illegal discharges of raw sewage into the Red Run Drain.
“We are applauding EGLE for taking this punitive action against Oakland County for continued violations of state law prohibiting the discharge of raw sewage that threatens public health and the environment,” Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said Monday.
After the release in April, Miller said Public Works staff discovered sanitary wipes, condoms and tampons in shrubs and trees along the banks of the Red Run.
Macomb County said the Kuhn Basin serves as the stormwater and sanitary flow from 14 communities in Oakland County. When the capacity is insufficient, the basin overflows and discharges into the flow of the Red Run Drain with minimal treatment.
During our story in April, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash says his county isn't to blame.
Nash says other wastewater treatment facilities in the area had issues with sewage overflow this year.
“The Warren wastewater treatment plant released 43 million gallons of bypassed blended sewage, which means it’s raw sewage going into the red run drain, so that’s about six miles down from our facility then and then a little future downstream… the Center Line sewer drain had an overflow," said Nash. “So if they’re blaming us for what happened in that lake, we’re responsible for about 2% of the flow of that day and Macomb County is responsible for 80-90% of that flow, so she’s blaming us, but it’s actually facilities in her county that are causing the fast majority in that storm.”
