Macomb County leaders call for hold on Oakland County permit, prompt action on sewage discharge

Lake St. Clair | Susan J. Demas

State Rep. Doug Wozniak (R-Shelby Twp.) has joined with multiple Macomb County officials in calling for neighboring Oakland County to step up and keep sewage out of their waterways.

Wozniak, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller and County Commission Chair Don Brown and other Macomb County legislators are calling on the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to hold off on renewing Oakland County’s groundwater discharge permit until the county commits to addressing sewage discharges into the Red Run Drain, which flows for 130 miles through both counties .

“We cannot continue letting Oakland County dump millions of gallons of sewage into Macomb County surface waters,” Wozniak said in a statement.

“This is a matter to which the state has turned a blind eye for far too long,” Wozniak said. “This is a public health and environmental issue of incredible magnitude. It must be addressed.”

Oakland County uses a combined sewage system , where stormwater and wastewater empty into the same mainline and are transported to treatment facilities. However, particularly heavy rainfall or excessive snowmelt can flood these systems, discharging untreated stormwater and waste into nearby bodies of water.

In Oakland County’s George W. Kuhn Drainage District, the waste is routed to the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, but during heavy rainfall, the excess flow is sent to a retention treatment basin where the county says it is stored, screened and disinfected prior to being discharged into the Red Run Drain which flows into the Clinton River and into Lake St. Clair.

The Oakland County system has emptied into the Red Run Drain for decades, though Miller and other Macomb officials have begun calling for Oakland County to step up and address these overflows in recent years, saying the system has allowed untreated and partially treated sewage into the Red Run Drain.

In 2020, the Macomb County Office of Public Works released a video where Miller picked personal wipes off a tree down river from the retention treatment basin in Madison Heights.

“You don’t get sewer wipes falling from the sky. I’m just gonna say, I’m not a scientist but even I can tell you that. This stuff came from the sewers and now it’s here,” Miller said in the video.

Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash did not respond to an emailed request for comment prior to publication.

In an email, EGLE Communications Manager Hugh McDiarmid Jr. said Oakland County’s George W. Kuhn Combined Sewer Overflow Retention Treatment Facility permit meets all federal and state regulations regarding discharge of treated combined sewer overflows.

The permit — which expired on Oct. 1, 2023, but has been extended while the reissued permit is drafted — authorizes the discharge of treated overflows, not untreated overflows, McDiarmid noted.

EGLE will determine whether any additional steps need to be included in the draft reissued permit, McDiarmid said.

“EGLE will hold permittees accountable and ensure that appropriate corrective action is taken, and has been supporting, both technically and financially, communities that go beyond the legal minimums to strategically manage flow, increase system capacity, improve storm water permeability, and encourage water conservation,” McDiarmid said.

While said he would like to see EGLE take action without legislative prompting, the Macomb Daily reported Wozniak is working on a bill that would require Oakland County to submit a plan for reducing its average 5-year volume of discharge by 50%. Upon gaining approval from EGLE, the county must begin implementing the plan within a two-year deadline. Failure to submit a plan or meet the deadline would result in a penalty of $1 million a month.

State Rep. Alicia St. Germaine (R-Harrison Twp.) also plans to introduce a bill that would fine Oakland County 25 cents for every gallon of untreated sewage dumped into Macomb County Water, the Macomb Daily reported. Fellow Macomb state Reps. Jay Deboyer (R-Clay Twp.) and Joseph Aragona (R-Clinton Twp.) are also penning legislation.