igan awash
e r 0 erflo
•
Ie
•
In
LANSING- Michigan as
�:tewller treatment plants and m
strie discharged enough
e-rootamiDaled
year to fill 900,000 ttaidcutial
• · pools, acxudiDg to a
reeeet tudy.
To help clean up the poblem,
tate ide hearings ill be
cheduled this � on a bill
introduced by Rep. William Van
Regenmorter, R-J . 00.
The study, - Michigan's
Sewer Crisis: Tbe Problml and
ov
Last year, 20 billioo gall
f:l raw ewage and toxic
ere dumped' into Micbig ,
aterways. A recent study
released by Public Sedor' Coo
ul in Lausing Udcated that
mo t of their sewage con-
taminated wate was con
centrated in 70 Michigan cities
and counties. Among them are.
-Belding
-Detroit
- East Lansing
-Farmington
-GI in
-Grand Rapids
-Grosse Poi Farma
-Grosse p. Par
-Grosse p. Shores
- ooroe
- t, PI
Cle
- iles
-Oakland County
-South acomb
S nitary District
-w y ecounty
OUL G our
e, - Van Regen-
dre
qurie . cities to notify
dOtfDS1tream commUDiti
eoverfl . It
redquire citi to . t 112
fex- eYtzy gallOll ptled iJm
. ,
a vings account used for
upgrading their sewage sy
Van Regeomorter said
Strict time schedules fex- im
poviDg age sy ould
be implemented. If violated, the
city ould pay a fiDe, which
ould go into existing state
fund used for envirOJUDental
clean- UP.S, he said
The state Department of
Natural Re ource al 0 is
lUtrictiDg the amo' of ra'
ew e aDd toxic aste dumped
into Michigan's waterway, . d
Steve Homi, DNR envirolunm
tal eagincer.
To msclwge aste in water
ays, city govemmen must
apply fex- five year permi .
ued by the DNR's Water
Resources Commi"ioa, he said
. THESE ECENT PER·
MITS th t e've issued to
Detroit d other citi are ad
dressing combined ewage
overflow for the first," Itimi
aid
Combiucd sewage overflow
are cischrges storm and sanitary
ewers.
'These combined ewer sys
tems flow into wastew ter
tieatmCDt plants, which treat the
w ter before cischarging it into
rivers and lakes.
But when it raiDs some pants
are DOt le to treat the additioo
al w tewater fast euough aod
have to divert the UDtreated w -
tewater into nearby waterways.
Most of the 70 cities cited in
the study have combiDed sewer
systems. In some of the sy tems
tudied, only one-tenth of an
inch of rain can cause an over
flow. All of these systems are
more than 30 years old, but
ome are over so.
RAW EW AGE, pesticides,
PCB' , lead, c dmium, mer
cury, oil, grease, fertilizers,
deterg aDd other . hi
w tes are discharged during
overflow, often prompting
fi bing and health advisories.
Cont ct with co laminated
water can cause stomach and in-
testinal iefectioes, D8 fever
and ciarrbca. In extreme es,
it can ca typb.
But under current , cities
have combined er over-
flo s are not required to DOtify
ueighboriDg commODities. Last
year, 43 health advisories were
reported, the ely • d,
Finding money to update
er sy is a problem, . d
George Goodmen, executive
director of the Michigan
MODicipal�
need for a cleaner environment
with the Deed for fmanciog,- he
said -'Ihci fecbal govemmen
aud tate govCl'DJDCDt are going
to have to came to the . lance
of local govCl'lUDCllts.-
. By the Year 2010, some ys
tems will serve twice the
population they were designed
to erve, the study said Separat
ing the combined sewer systems
statewide would cost cities an
estimatM $3.1 billion. By the
year 2000, the cost of separ tion
would jump to about $5 billio .
Although combined sewer
overflows are a st tewide
malady, Detroit is the largest
part of the problem because it
. beats tewater for abo 40
outlying communtites, said
Riclwd J , ex
ecutive director of Michigan
. United Conservation Clubs in
LaasiDg.
• (.Detroir sy tem) is one of
the biggest polluter on the
Great lakes,- he said
EVE Y Y A ,DETROIT
dumps S to 6 millioo gal-
I eX un ed ewage and
toxic aste into waterway
every year, the study said
. Detroit appealed its DNR
pmDit Dec. 18, claiming com
pliance with the more stringent
regulatio ould be too dif-
ficult, said mi, who drafted
the permit On Feb. 22, the DNR
Water Resources Commi ion
iiI' hear the appeal. .
The permit Iimi COIl-
ceotrations of lead, cadmi
mercury PCBs peel iDto
·d V
diJect« rJ. the
N· Wddlife Federation'
Great Lake office in Ann
Arbor. It also requires the city to
draft pi fex- construction of
additional i and pump sta
tions to help prevent ewage
overflows.
If the city does DOt meet pan
ning deadlines, it i subject to
S25,OOO in fines every day, he
aid
Undec the permit, the Qty of
DQtroit al 0 is required to con
trol industrial dumping by forc
ing indushies to treat their own
w instead of civerting them
to the w te ttl treatment
plan Van id,
·We w Detroit to comply
with the control that almost
everyone el e in Michigan has
complied with," he said,
The more restrictive DNR
permits such the one Detroit
w s is ued are necessary to
remedy theproble VanPutten
·d
-Enforcing .e permit
isn't going to clean up water
quality, - said
I
This Week In Black
History
March 4-10
MA CH 4, 194. - The
United. Negro College Fund
founded. 1954 - J. Ernest
Wilkins named a si tant
secretary of labor by President
Eisenhower.
CH 5, Dr. James Der
ham of Ne Orle was the
fir recorded Black physician
in the U.S. 1770 - Crispus At
t first to die in B on M -
ere,
MARCH 6, 1791 - Tho
DoWning was born and saved
e York Herald fro
bankruptcy. 1940 - WdlieStar-
gell;basebaU player born.
eH 7,1 - Cens
Blacks outnumber . es in S.
Caf(�lina and ... . 1965
- Police halted Selma-to
Montgomery m rch to have
been led by Martin Luther Kieg,
Jr.
CH ,1974 - Cool
P p Bell, star of old Negro
League , named to B eball
Hall of Flame. 1977 - Henry L.
Marsh, III elected mayor of
·chmond, Va.
CH 9, The CHARLES
TON, LINDY, HOP, Jl1TER
BUG and 1WIST originated
Black dances. 1963 - Carl T.
Rowan appointed amb dor
to Finl d.
cn 10, 1972 - t N -
tional Black Political Conve _ ..
. openedinGary,Ind.on .
day. 1913 - Harriet Tubm
Underground Railro d "con
d or", died.
•