MACOMB COUNTY (WWJ) -- As Metro Detroit continues to recover from weekend rainstorms that left many areas flooded, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller says crews from the department took actions that “prevented basement flooding in the county from becoming much more widespread.”
Miller says early Saturday morning, the crew at the Chapaton Pump Station on 9 Mile Road at Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores opened the emergency bypass, which sent chemically treated combined stormwater and sanitary sewage into Lake St. Clair -- the first time in many years officials had to use the emergency bypass.
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The St. Clair Shores and Eastpointe areas saw nearly four inches of rain between Friday morning and early Saturday morning, leaving many basements, yards and roads in the area under water. But Miller says it could have been worse.
“We’re aware that basement flooding unfortunately occurred in some spots in our county, and we sympathize with those residents,” Miller said in a press release. “Our team really prevented thousands more basements in St. Clair Shores and Eastpointe from flooding and spared the many residents from the messy cleanup and having to throw away furniture or other personal possessions – a difficult and emotional task that too many individuals and families in metro Detroit have been experiencing the past couple of days.”
Other areas in metro Detroit reported five inches of rain, while totals topped six inches in some areas, according to Miller.
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Widespread flooding near Detroit and the Grosse Pointe communities was caused in part when the Connor Creek Pump Station in Detroit shut down over the weekend.
Normally, combined sewer flow from St. Clair Shores and Eastpoint is sent to that pump station on its way to the Great Lakes Water Authority treatment facility, but Miller says with that pump station down, “we became the last line of defense.”
Officials say the combined stormwater and sanitary flow rapidly filled the Chapaton Retention Basin in St. Clair Shores, and combined with the heavy flow in the system serving the St. Clair Shores-Eastpointe drainage district was treated with chlorine to state standards before being discharged into the lake.
Officials are still working to determine the exact number of gallons released into the lake, but estimate the total will be in the millions.
“Let’s face it, the alternative is far less desirable. If we don’t discharge to the lake in those kinds of situations, the sewage will end up in basements,” Miller said.
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Further north in Macomb County, officials say water levels were high in many open drains, going across some roads and creeping close to yards of homes built close to drain easements.
“Thanks to extensive drain maintenance during the last four years by Macomb County Public Works Office crews working in many open channels to remove logjams and other debris, and who removed lots of sedimentation blockage from many underground storm sewers in cities all across Macomb County, the drains performed well over the weekend. Water levels receded significantly in less than 24 hours,” the department said in a statement.
Miller says that’s visual proof the drains did their job.
Officials say the immediate impact of heavy rain like the area experienced over the weekend -- as well as the cleanup that follows -- “are stark reminders that infrastructure below ground and out of sight cannot be out of mind throughout the region in order to better handle such rare rain events in the future.”
Miller’s office is working with leaders at the state, local and federal levels in order to obtain funding for infrastructure improvements and reduce the cost of such improvements to ratepayers in the affected drainage districts.
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