Construction crews will start work this month on a nearly $30 million sewer project in St. Clair Shores that aims to reduce the number of discharges of treated wastewater and stormwater into Lake St. Clair.
They will be laying an additional five-foot diameter sewer line beneath Jefferson between Nine Mile and Rio Vista, increasing the capacity of the system.
"This is truly transformational," said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller.
The Southeast Macomb Sanitary District and the Macomb County Public Works Office are partnering on this construction project, and they provided a briefing on it on Thursday. Mobilization for the project will start the week of Feb. 17, and the project will take two years. Miller said it's being paid for by $20 million of federal American Rescue Plan money, a $2 million federal earmark and $5 million in state money.
On average eight times a year, the Public Works Office discharges a mix of wastewater and stormwater from the Martin Retention Treatment Basin into Lake St. Clair after treating the water with bleach. Miller estimated the Jefferson sewer project will reduce the number of the discharges, called combined sewer overflows, by about 50%. Miller and Peter Trombley, wastewater superintendent for the Southeast Macomb Sanitary District, said the project will also help alleviate basement and street flooding in northern St. Clair Shores.
The Southeast Macomb Sanitary District handles sewage coming from Roseville, St. Clair Shores and Eastpointe. The sanitary district's operations director, Kip Walby, who is also the mayor of St. Clair Shores, said he and other officials are responsible for leaving things "better than we have."
"Once we put this pipe in, we have made it better and improved the lake, because there'll be less discharges," he said.
Trombley said the two agencies are trying to correct a bottleneck in the sewer system. Currently, in the Jefferson and Rio Vista area, the sewage goes from flowing through two 48-inch pipes to just one 60-inch pipe. Workers will be adding a second 60-inch pipe to increase the capacity of the system.
Trombley said the project will be done in phases. They will first work beneath Jefferson between Nine Mile and Stephens ? a 1,500-foot stretch. They then will move north and do a few more blocks beneath Jefferson. They will continue working, one stretch at a time, until they reach Rio Vista.
When a particular stretch is being worked on, the west side of Jefferson will be closed in that stretch, while the east side will have a temporary lane configuration, with one lane in each direction.
"We attempted to do this as best we could, to have less impact and make sure" that all businesses remain open, Walby said.
Miller's office has spent about $140 million on underground infrastructure projects since she took office. She said Warren and Clinton Township have also done projects to try to prevent sewage discharges.
"In Macomb County, we are all very focused on Lake St. Clair water quality," she said. "We do feel it equals quality of life."
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