There’s an ongoing battle between Oakland and Macomb counties revolving around what residents flush down their toilets. The issue is not just about what is being flushed, but where it goes and how it gets there.
During heavy rain events, outdated infrastructure forces raw sewage into the Red Run Drain. Macomb County’s drain commissioner claims Oakland County is intentionally dumping raw sewage into the drain, violating the law. In contrast, Oakland County insists that any dumping is not intentional but a necessity.
It’s something most people rarely think about—when you flush, where does it end up? For many in Oakland and Macomb counties, it ends up in the Red Run Drain, flowing into the Clinton River and eventually Lake St. Clair. Typically, this sewage is heavily treated, cleaned, and safe for the environment.
However, during heavy storms, the outdated infrastructure cannot handle all the water. Instead of untreated raw sewage backing up into basements, it gets dumped into the drain.
Candice Miller, Macomb County’s public works commissioner, noted, “The last time was, I think, 1.2 million gallons. And of course, that’s what’s in the raw sanitary sewage: wipes, condoms, bags. I’m telling you, really.”
To help visualize the situation, Miller pointed out that the water rose significantly, with toilet wipes still stuck in trees.
Miller places the blame for this issue on Oakland County, stating that when the systems back up, Oakland County releases raw sewage from its George W. Kuhn Treatment Facility in Madison Heights. “They just release it. They never see it. It just comes here,” she said.
Miller is asking the state regulators to intervene, questioning whether they can enforce regulations against Oakland County for dumping raw sewage, which she argues is a violation of their permit.
Local 4 took her accusations to Jim Nash, Oakland County’s water resources commissioner, who met us inside the Kuhn Treatment Facility. He stated, “This facility has nothing to do with that. When she’s trying to make it sound like this facility should go through changes, that has nothing to do with this facility.”
If the facility has nothing to do with it, where is the raw sewage coming from? Nash took us back to where we started, deep inside the Red Run Drain.
“We’re inside—the Red Oaks Dog Park is right above me,” Nash explained. “They say when this happens, nobody chooses to do it; it’s by system design.”
This system design relates to the Dequindre Interceptor, which carries raw sewage to Detroit for treatment. However, during heavy rain events, when the system backs up, it is designed to overflow, spilling over weirs meant to keep it in place.
Nash acknowledged, “It sounds like even though it is a violation, it’s the lesser of two evils. I’m not going to do a thing to cause basements to get flooded with sewage—especially raw sewage from the Dequindre separator. The only alternative is to let it flow into the Red Run Drain.”
But why would a system be designed to overflow raw sewage? Nash explained that it’s a failsafe that hasn’t been needed until recently. Changes in the past five years, possibly due to downstream infrastructure issues or climate change bringing heavier storms, have exacerbated the problem.
Now, teams are looking for solutions. “We are working with Macomb County and the GLWA. We just finished a study on how we can adjust our flow to prevent this from happening in the future,” Nash said. They hope to implement a new plan by the end of this year.
“There might be common ground,” Nash added, “looking at aging infrastructure as the real problem.” Miller echoed this sentiment, stating, “We have a lot of antiquated, undersized infrastructure, like all over the country. That’s really the issue that we’re dealing with here.”
Macomb County reports that 1.2 million gallons of sewage were dumped into the Red Run Drain. To put it into perspective, that’s enough to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
