ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (WXYZ) — Construction is now underway on an infrastructure project in Macomb County to reduce sewer overflows into Lake St. Clair and reduce basement flooding.
I got to see the beginning of the multi-million-dollar project and to ask questions about what the public can expect.
Andy Reid lives nearby the infrastructure project in St. Clair Shores.
“$27 million is a lot but if it’s going to make our community better and avoid an even bigger problem sometime in the near future, then yeah, let’s do it,” said Andy Reid, St. Clair Shores resident.
As he sees it, the equation is simple.
“Any opportunity to keep the lake cleaner is a good one,” said Reid.
That is the promise. Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller explained to me what is underway.
WXYZ’s Mike Duffy asked, “What is going to be underneath us?”
“This will be a very very deep hole,” said Candice Miller, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner. “A hole that will provide a buffer during large rain events. I mean 'cause it’s storage. It’s going to be water storage.”
It will provide an additional 13 million gallons of storage capacity on top of the current 30 million gallons.
“What that means to us at our pump station here is about a 38 to 40% reduction in combined sewer overflows from discharging those out into the lake,” said Miller.
However, Miller says this expansion along with similar projects nearby means a much cleaner future.
“We’re going to get real close to not having to discharge nearly ever, which is our goal,” said Miller.
$25 million for the project is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act fund plus a $2 million allocation from the state.
Additionally, another $16 million in ARPA (American Rescue Protection Act).
“The electric is a critical component of any pump station, right?”
“When does the electrical go out? When you have a storm. And when we have these big storms, we need to make sure that we’re not running old electrical here. Our switch panel at this station is 55 years old.”
“We are also investing in 2-megawatt generators,” said Miller.
“And so we’re going to have redundancy, with an additional feed as well. So, in a storm event, we’ll have redundant electrical feed and then if we need to, we’ll go to the generators as well. Because if you don’t do that, again, you’re going to flood basements,” said Miller.
It has happened in the past. In 2021 it happened to St. Clair Shores resident Kristine Crook.
St. Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby knows how devastating this can be.
“Obviously many times expensive, many times not even insured. It’s the destruction of their valuables that they have lost, part of their life,” said Kip Walby, Mayor of St. Clair Shores.
He says they’re tackling these projects now for future generations.
“This is transformational. This will not only just fix something today, but this sort of stuff fixes it for 30, 40, and 50 years,” said Walby.
