Project updates: In the works

Reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs)

The Macomb County Public Works Office continues to make steady progress with projects that have -- or will upon completion -- reduce combined sewer overflows. These projects include In-System Storage devices, a new pump station and operational changes. For example, operational changes by staff including replacement of manhole covers at the Chapaton Pump Station enabled us to more fully utilize the capacity of the system including the large interceptor that carries combined storm water flow and sanitary sewage in St. Clair Shores and Eastpointe. “For decades, CSOs were too often shrugged off and accepted by many folks as long as the discharges met state guidelines. However, we don’t need to keep living this way,” Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice S. Miller said. “We can’t keep pushing this problem onto the next generation hoping they might solve it.”

Other key projects in various stages of planning, design or construction:

• ”In-system storage” in the drainage district serving Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores. A bladder to be installed this year upstream in the 8 ½ Mile Drain interceptor will be inflated as necessary to temporary hold back the flow before releasing it downstream to the Great Lakes Water Authority facility in Detroit for full treatment. The bladder and the operational change will provide 12 million gallons of additional storage and reduce CSOs by 36 percent.
• Martin Relief Drain in-system storage, using a weir to temporarily hold back flow reducing CSOs by 20 percent annually. A new pump station on Nine Mile at Jefferson Avenue, next to the Chapaton Pump Station.
• Rehabilitation of the canal that leads from the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin to Lake St. Clair, providing 10 million gallons of additional storage to reduce CSOs by 30 percent.

Overall, when completed, our projects will reduce CSOs in to Lake St. Clair by approximately 70 percent!