Warren Mayor Jim Fouts and the Macomb County Board of Commissioners have joined Candice Miller’s calls to get Oakland County to stop dumping sewage into a drain that flows into Macomb.
Fouts on Monday said he may have to resort to a lawsuit or building a dam to prevent sewage overflows from entering the Red Run Drain, and the county board in October passed a resolution urging Oakland officials to invest in steps to reduce sewer discharges.
Oakland County dumps sewage combined with storm water into the Red Run in Madison Heights during heavy rain events. Partially treated or raw sewage flows through the drain into Sterling Heights and Warren, into the Clinton River and ultimately into Lake St. Clair, impacting water quality.
Fouts issued a proclamation urging Oakland to reduce discharges.
“I am officially urging Oakland County to develop immediate measures to prevent the unnecessary overflows from Oakland County that come during peak storms,” Fouts said in a news release. “We cannot tolerate the Oakland County Water Resource Commission using our city as an area to flush away their partially treated water damaging and infecting Warren residential basements and streets.”
Six weeks ago, the county board passed a resolution 12-0 asking Oakland to correct the situation and the state “to take a leadership role and no longer permit this situation for the residents who are forced to live with sewage continuously flowing from Oakland County and to provide funding to help finance corrective actions.”
The board’s resolution was sponsored by Commissioner Barb Zinner of Harrison Township.
Zinner called it a “friendly gesture, a friendly communication to our neighbors in Oakland County and let them know how we feel, and maybe we can have cooperation with Oakland County and the state.”
Miller, the county Public Works commissioner who spoke at the board committee meeting where the resolution was introduced, conceded Macomb County also engages in Combined Sewer Overflows, but pointed out it is spending $120 million to fix the problem.
“We also don’t have clean hands, but we are trying to clean up our own problem here, and we are spending millions of dollars to do so,” she said.
Oakland has had only CSO event this year due to low rainfall but last year dumped multiple times, Miller said.
Miller, who has been complaining about Oakland’s overflows for years, said she was “delighted” the board was discussing the issue and noted she realizes Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash isn’t happy with her constant chorus of criticism.
“My counterpart in Oakland County, the guy will not even look at me anymore,” she said. “He’s so angry I even raise this issue.”
Oakland County water officials say there is a misperception that Oakland has something to do with wastewater materials that are contributing to Red Run pollution.
“We don’t simply release raw sewage that has led to the beach closings and algae issues in Lake St. Clair,” Nash said in an interview. “We all use the same permitting process. We need to examine that whole process, because it’s not just us that are dealing with this. It all impacts the lake.”
Miller acknowledged Oakland, like Macomb, is permitted by the state to do CSOs.
“But just because the state is permitting you to dump your you-know-what on your neighbor’s head is not what should be happening,” Miller said. “It’s our fresh water drinking supply.”
She said Oakland has violated its permit.
Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel was diplomatic about the dispute but acknowledged it is a problem that needs to be addressed.
“There is a difference between what is permissible and what should be done,” he said. “It’s time for us to collectively examine what is permissible and create modern ways to protect our freshwater assets.”
The Lake St.Clair shoreline for decades has been plagued with out-of-control algea growth and closed beaches due to contaminants in the water.
Nash said he is working on a regional collaboration that takes a scientific approach to finding the causes of the pollution. He said Macomb and Wayne counties are on board with the concept, as is SEMCOG.
“We need to stop yelling at each other,” he said. “I am willing to sit down and look at the data and studies that have been up until now, and we can grow from there. Until then, there are some people who are just yelling.”
He expects the task force will get going in 2023.
Miller said Tuesday she supports a task force.
Fouts said he would take the drastic measures of suing Oakland County or building a dam or “blockade” to protect the city streets and basements from flooding with sewer water.
“It would be a dam that we would put up only in cases of great monumental problems,” Fouts said. “But it is a dramatic thing and we would have to get approval from other agencies. One idea would be putting up some sort of blockade to be used in times of great issues. We would only do it in the case of major floods.
“If Oakland County won’t work with us, we may have to sue them. We can’t continue to have Oakland County make the city of Warren a septic tank for Oakland County’s waste.”
Fouts sent an email to Nash urging Oakland County’s cooperation with Miller last Thursday and has not yet received a response, he said Tuesday.
Fouts said Oakland’s failure to work with Macomb is a violation of the “Riparian” legal doctrine, which says “water belongs to the person whose land borders a body of water. Riparian owners are permitted to make reasonable use of this water provided it does not unreasonably interfere with the reasonable use of this water by others with riparian rights,” according to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.
When Miller appeared in front of the board in October, she presented a video of her finding dried-out “sewer wipes” stuck in the Red Run banks just east of Dequindre Road at the county border in Warren. The wipes, which people flush down the toilet, were left there when high waters containing Oakland sewage rose during a heavy rain and then receded, she said.
Commissioner Mai Xiong, who lives near 14 Mile and Hoover roads in Warren near the Red Run, said she is a witness to the problem.
“It literally is an open sewer,” she said. “It smells most days.”
She called the problem “a human rights issue” because it impacts drinking water.
Miller credited Warren, Clinton Township and Mount Clemens for spending millions of dollars to reduce or eliminate CSOs.
“We spent over $200 million on upgrades including the retention basin,” Fouts said. “No one else is doing that but us. We spent a good $100 million or so on putting in storm drains on 13 and 11 Mile roads and upgrading the pump station.
“We are making every effort to clean up the Red Run and Lake St. Clair and Oakland County has not done anything to show they are committed to preventing untreated water from getting into the Red Run.”
