Macomb Today

County of Macomb issued the following announcement on Mar. 7.

Reacting to a published report of a joint study conducted by Wayne State University’s Healthy Urban Waters program and the University of Florida of water samples pulled from the corridor between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, Miller said more must be done to reduce the amount of pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other compounds from getting into the water.

Many of the substances enter the waterways as a result of storm water runoff during major rain events leading to combined sewer overflows including from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

"This study shows why it is so important for all of us to take the issue of combined sewer overflows much more seriously. Just because the State of Michigan permits this activity doesn't make it OK,” Miller said. “This study is a wakeup call for communities to separate their combined systems, and or build bigger retention basins. We can't just keep passing this issue on to future generations when what we're doing is negatively impacting our drinking water."

reported by the Detroit Free Press on Monday, the joint study found that antibiotics, acetaminophen, cocaine, the diabetes drug metformin, nicotine, PFAS and caffeine were detected in water samples. Some are described as “contaminants of emerging concern” because they are only detectable now because of advanced laboratory technology but the full impact to the environment and public health has not been studied and remains unknown.

Several compounds, such as prescription drugs, are not fully broken down by humans and are secreted in their waste. In areas where sanitary sewers are not separate from storm sewers, the combined flow including runoff of pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural areas, and chemicals from industrial sites – reducing CSO’s helps.

In 2020, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy rejected a Macomb County Public Works Office request to increase the storage capacity at the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin on Nine Mile Road at Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores by expanding the storage canal that connects the underground storage basin to Lake St. Clair. That plan would have reduced CSO’s by up to 70%.

“Much to our surprise and dismay, EGLE denied that permit request, claiming the agency needed to protect that small canal under the guise of protecting the waters of the state. Yet reducing CSO’s would have helped achieve exactly just that!” Miller said.

Since EGLE’s rejection two years ago, Macomb County Public Works engineers and staff led by Miller have continued to design and develop other projects that will help reduce CSOs, although on a smaller scale.

“Every little bit of reduction helps,” Miller said. “Water quality equals quality of life, and the problem of CSO’s -- and even the occasional discharge of raw, untreated sewage that has occurred in other counties in violation of discharge permits -- is not something that should just be passed along to future generations to solve.”

In 2021, the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin and the Martin Drain Retention Treatment discharged a total of 411 million gallons and 405 million gallons of treated CSO’s, respectively, into Lake St. Clair. The George W. Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin, which serves the far southeast portion of Oakland County, discharged 3.1 billion gallons of combined sewer flow into the Red Run Drain last year, including 1 million gallons of raw sewage on June 26, 2021. The Red Run connects to the Clinton River which flows into Lake St. Clair. In Wayne County, the Milk River Retention Treatment Basin in Grosse Pointe Woods discharged 799 million gallons of treated combined sewer flow into the lake last year.

Original source can be found here.