STERLING HEIGHTS – Officials in Macomb County announced plans to construct a new odor control facility in Sterling Heights after receiving countless complaints from residents about the lingering foul smell.
Construction of the new facility, which will be located along the south side of 15 Mile Road west of Schoenherr Road in Sterling Heights, marks the latest in a series of projects aimed at reducing sewer odors in the area.
Recommended Videos
“We were very aware of all the complaints, and we’ve been working to solve this problem,” Public Works Commissioner Candice S. Miller said in a news release on Thursday. “Not tackling these projects eventually would lead to collapses that would be much more disruptive and costly to all ratepayers. We simply cannot afford to have another major sinkhole.”
The location for the odor control facility was specifically selected so that it resides at the confluence of two major sanitary sewer interceptors: one serving 11 communities in the Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District (MIDDD), and one carrying the flow from 12 communities in southeast Oakland County. The combined flows are then carried south through the ITC Corridor to the Great Lakes Water Authority’s wastewater treatment facility in Detroit.
Miller said the new facility will be the “fifth and final piece” of the county’s infrastructure updates to mitigate the odorous hydrogen sulfide gas, which officials say can be highly corrosive to the concrete pipes that carry raw sewage from thousands of residents and businesses.
State Rep. Ron Robinson (R-Utica) says he played a vital role in securing $2.5 million from the state budget to help support the project, allowing the county to fund it without an increased cost to residents.
“I have been in conversation with dozens of constituents who have been directly affected by these odors,” he said. “That is why I fought for this appropriation, and I am proud to deliver the relief they have been asking for.”
Construction of the new facility is tentatively planned to begin next year. In the meantime, officials say a mobile odor control unit will be in place.