# Clinton River illegal sewage dumping



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Macomb Co. to target illegal sewage dumping
Inspections of two major drains are expected to identify illicit sanitary sewer connections.

STERLING HEIGHTS-- Macomb County's Public Works Department is scheduled today to take on two major drain cleanup projects.

County contractors are scheduled to begin several days of combing through a seven-mile section of the underground Schoenherr relief drain between Warren and Sterling Heights. Their mission is to identify so-called illicit sanitary sewer connections -- sewage being dumped into the storm drain.

And the department's chief engineer and contractors plan to tour the Mahaffey drain, a creek that stretches from just south of 35 Mile and west of Van **** to the intersection of 34 Mile and McKay.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051202/METRO03/512020330/1014/METRO


----------



## stinger63 (Nov 25, 2003)

Any work done on the clinton river drainage system reducing sewage pollution is a good thing.


----------



## Ed Michrina (Dec 25, 2002)

Quote form the artical: The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality can issue fines of up to $25,000 for illegal sewage dumping.: Quote

It should be fine of 25,000 and 25,000 every day until fixed. 

It's slow but they are working on it. All good news!!


----------



## woodzman (Aug 29, 2001)

I can tell you this. There are alot of older house by like south of 32 mile rd off of romeo plank rd that have the old "50 gallon tank" sewage system that dumps right into the north branch of the Clinton River. 

ALL the drains from these houses leave the house and dump into 55 gal. drums dug into the ground. Sometimes they go through a series of drums, then right into the clinton! Washing Machine waste water, toliet waste water...all the drains in the house!

A friend also told me that just upstream of the mouth of the Paint Creek in Rochester a factory was dumping some real foul smelling white stuff, right under the clinton river rails to trails bridge...

I know house aren't as bad as big factories...but raw sewage is raw sewage!


----------



## Ed Michrina (Dec 25, 2002)

woodzman said:


> A friend also told me that just upstream of the mouth of the Paint Creek in Rochester a factory was dumping some real foul smelling white stuff, right under the clinton river rails to trails bridge...
> 
> I know house aren't as bad as big factories...but raw sewage is raw sewage!


I know in the City of Warren they have a Haz-mat person Who takes care of any hazardous material dumping be it in the red run or in a vacant lot. If you see something like what you described above you might give the local PD a call. 

While driving in Warren I spotted an oil slick that went for several miles. the city called out everyone involved in environmental control. They placed absorbent booms at 14 mile and Hoover and tracked down the company responsible for dumping it. ( A machine shop in Madison heights.) 

Big factories or raw sewage systems like you described shouldn't be happening.


----------



## stinger63 (Nov 25, 2003)

> Big factories or raw sewage systems like you described shouldn't be happening


----------



## snaggs (Jul 20, 2005)

Ever see that drain,on St.Clair River,from Dow Chemical,spewing some unearthly smelly stuff??? It supposidly created an underwater "BLOB" as it was called,something like hundreds and hundreds of yards long and just as wide..Wonder whatever happened to the "BLOB" and if anyone ever did a followup on it..Of course this was on the Canadian side,but then again it would cost too much money to monitor the problem and report any ill effects,should there be any and proof therein of the cause....Is the "BLOB still there???Is the "BLOB" clearing the waters of the River and LSC.Is the "BLOB the real source of food for ZEBRAS.GOBIES.FLEAS???? ANYBODY KNOW???????


----------



## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

I know one person who lives in an old house on the banks of the main stream. When he bought the house he discovered that his stand pipe in the basement for his washer was dumping into his crock for the sump pump, which does dump directly into the Clinton. Being a good man, on his own, he spent several hours breaking out the floor in the basement and tied the washer to the sanitary line. Subsequently it was discovered that somehow when the house was hooked to the sanitary sewer line, they actually hooked it to the storm drain line. That has all since been taken care of, but there are untold numbers of similar situations the current property owners are unaware of.


----------



## stinger63 (Nov 25, 2003)

snaggs said:


> Ever see that drain,on St.Clair River,from Dow Chemical,spewing some unearthly smelly stuff??? It supposidly created an underwater "BLOB" as it was called,something like hundreds and hundreds of yards long and just as wide..Wonder whatever happened to the "BLOB" and if anyone ever did a followup on it..Of course this was on the Canadian side,but then again it would cost too much money to monitor the problem and report any ill effects,should there be any and proof therein of the cause....Is the "BLOB still there???Is the "BLOB" clearing the waters of the River and LSC.Is the "BLOB the real source of food for ZEBRAS.GOBIES.FLEAS???? ANYBODY KNOW???????


As far as I know there was major project sucking up all the contamination from this area on the st clair river a couple of years ago.


----------



## jd_7655 (Mar 25, 2004)

Anyone ever drive over the clinton river just south of clinton river rd. on garfield in the summer. I've smelled porta jons that smell better then that area. As for the st. clair river thiers factories that dump polyvynolchloride and benzine (both cancer causeing agents) on a regular basis. Both chemicals have also shown up at detroits manisuple water plant. Detroit has the 2nd most polluted water in the u.s. acording to the EPA. Louisiana was 1st.


----------



## back2spool (May 7, 2005)

jd_7655 said:


> Detroit has the 2nd most polluted water in the u.s. acording to the EPA. Louisiana was 1st.


Wow, I might sound really naive here, but I had always heard that Detroit water (what we get from the tap), is one of the cleanest in the country! Am I way off on that? My bro-in-law (used to sell water purification systems and idiot savant) says so too.

I'd like to see a website/report that says how bad our water truly is!


----------



## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

I am thinking that the Saginaw River and Bay are probably some of the most toxic, due to the PCBs and PBBs which have run downstream from Dow Chemical in Midland. I read a report a long time ago that rated the Saginaw river as THE most polluted river in the Country. That report stated that since most of the toxins were in the mud on the bottom of the river and bay, that they did not want to try cleaning it up and it was safer to just leave them where they were.


----------



## jd_7655 (Mar 25, 2004)

back2spool said:


> Wow, I might sound really naive here, but I had always heard that Detroit water (what we get from the tap), is one of the cleanest in the country! Am I way off on that? My bro-in-law (used to sell water purification systems and idiot savant) says so too.
> 
> I'd like to see a website/report that says how bad our water truly is!


I'm not sure if the epa means from the tap, ground water, or the lakes in general when they said the sencond most contaminated becasue the article didnt specify. But federal law mandates that the city has to notify the residents of any chemicals found at the water treatment plants. I've seen it twice in the Detroit freepress that they've found polyvinolchoride in the water at the treatment plant. People who have had one exposure to this stuff from working with it have developed cancer. Thier are groups and orginizations that are trying to push for fedral bans on its use. Its a bi product of pvc and vinol plasctics. Also durring the black out of 2003 the is a plant on the st clair river that dumped 30 million gallons of it although I dont rember the spacifics of why they did it.


----------



## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

ESOX said:


> I know one person who lives in an old house on the banks of the main stream. When he bought the house he discovered that his stand pipe in the basement for his washer was dumping into his crock for the sump pump, which does dump directly into the Clinton. Being a good man, on his own, he spent several hours breaking out the floor in the basement and tied the washer to the sanitary line. Subsequently it was discovered that somehow when the house was hooked to the sanitary sewer line, they actually hooked it to the storm drain line. That has all since been taken care of, but there are untold numbers of similar situations the current property owners are unaware of.



My dad has a place on the main branch of the Clinton and he had the same situation it was corrected. The neighbohrs also had the same and I'm sure it never got corrected. Even though I have good private access I just can't myself to go down there. Now that they are planting steelhead there (taken from the Mill that I fish regularly) I may have to start driving 94 and get my butt on the banks.


----------

