Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller and two local state lawmakers lambasted the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s response to the state demanding a plan to halt improper sewage discharges into the Red Run Drain.

Miller and GOP state reps. Alicia St. Germaine of Harrison Township and Ron Robinson of Utica said they are dismayed by Oakland Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash’s response to the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s demand for a “corrective action plan.”

“Oakland County is talking in circles, and it (the response) really doesn’t address the issue, so my hope is EGLE gets their letter and throws it in the garbage,” St. Germaine said.

“I think it’s a disgrace,” Robinson said. “His plan isn’t a plan. It’s rhetoric.”

Miller said it shows Oakland’s “total lack of concern about what Oakland County discharges into the Red Run Drain and the damages these discharges do to our environment.”

“After years of sanitary sewage overflows, and only after constant demands by Macomb County that state regulators do something, their response is that they’ll continue to discharge but they’ll look into it,” she said in a written statement. “That is NOT a corrective plan.

“If EGLE allowed them to actually do what Oakland County is suggesting, the end result would be more discharges by Oakland County into Macomb County and more flooding because the Red Run doesn’t have the capacity to handle even more during large rain events.”

EGLE issued a permit violation to Oakland on April 29 for its April 3 release of nearly 1.2 million gallons of raw sewage, known as a sanitary sewer overflow, from the Dequindre Interceptor into the Red Run Drain during a heavy rainfall April 2-3. The Dequindre Interceptor is in the George W. Kuhn Drainage District, where the basin is located in Madison Heights.

In the notice, EGLE officials required Oakland to provide a response by May 29 that included “a corrective action plan,” and that “due to the severity of the noncompliance, this matter is being evaluated for escalated enforcement.”

It was the second violation following one in 2023, state officials said.

In his two-page May 29 response, Nash describes two actions his office will take but says they will take time to accomplish and raises flow issues downstream in the GLWA system.

As a solution for now, Nash says: “We plan to store as much flow as possible in the GWK (George W. Kuhn) system during wet weather events and continue to discharge through the GWK RTB (Retention Basin).”

That is a change from past operations in which his office has maximized its discharges into the GLWA system, he adds.

“The new modification will allow us to have more storage in the Dequindre Interceptor to allow for backwater and reverse flow from GLWA to minimize and potentially eliminate SSOs,” he wrote.

But he also notes, “Implementation of this operational change is in process” and “will take multiple events to finalize the revised operating plan for the GWKDD system.”

The state also asked for “an evaluation of the current operating protocols” at the Kuhn Basin “in relation to the hydraulic grade line in the Dequindre Interceptor that could reduce the likelihood of a SSO from the Dequindre Interceptor.”

In response, Nash says there is a “restriction” of water flow from the Kuhn Basin due to downstream issues in the GLWA, after a work group created last year concluded “that there is a direct relationship between the Dequindre Interceptor SSO level and the corresponding level in the GLWA system.” The work group was composed of staffers from the GLWA, Oakland Macomb Interceptor Drain and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

“The flow from the GWKDD system is unable to discharge into the GLWA system when the GLWA Conant-Mt. Elliott system downstream of the GWKDD has elevated water level until the GWKDD system water level increases to overcome the downstream water level,” Nash said. “We have determined that during specific rain events a level is reached in the Conant-Mt. Elliott system which, first, will not allow GWKDD to discharge its contract capacity and, second, results in elevated water levels propagating upstream into the GWKDD system. In some situations, it appears that the GLWA system flows also reverse into the GWKDD system.”

Nash adds his office is “working on methods to decrease our flow rate to GLWA” during rainfalls, including “operating the drainage district in a manner to create storage in the GWKDD system; and increased permitted discharge through the GWK RTB facility.”

Also, the GLWA is drafting “a memo” on “additional specifics on what is causing this situation,” he says.

On top of that, Nash explains his office and the GLWA are continuing “to determine how the GLWA system interacts with the GWKDD system to see what improvements can be made to either or both the GLWA and GWKDD systems.”

He says that process will take six months to one year.

EGLE spokesman Jeff Johnston said Friday his department is reviewing Oakland’s response.

“Compliance staff generally review and decide on acceptability within 30 days of receipt but are expediting this matter and expect to have a decision within two weeks,” he said, adding EGLE “believes untreated or improperly treated sewage discharges are unhealthy and unacceptable. This is why EGLE is taking action to address these discharges in accordance with Michigan law.

Miller remarked, “I can’t imagine that EGLE would approve of their response at a time when EGLE is involved in studying flooding in southeast Michigan.”

Robinson called the lack of urgency in Nash’s letter “unacceptable.”

“The sewage overflow has had real consequences for residents who live along the Red Run River,” Robinson said. “People living near the Red Run have been dealing with awful smells, trash in the water, and health risks from bacteria like E. coli. Plants along the river are covered in wipes and debris after storms push sewage out of the system. … The next high-water event could be as disastrous as the April 3 incident. We cannot afford to put this on the back burner. We need action now, not more delays.”

Macomb officials would like to see an investment in “gray infrastructure” — expansion off the Kuhn Basin or the separation of the storm water and sewer water sewers. Miller has acknowledged those solutions are expensive but said, “Once again, I offer to go with WRC Commissioner Jim Nash to Lansing or Washington to lobby for more money or resources, as I have done for Macomb County, to solve their problem which continues to cause problems for us.”

Miller has garnered tens of millions of dollars in state and county dollars in recent years to make vast underground infrastructure upgrades in the county to reduce combined sewer overflows.

The Kuhn Basin and District serves all or part of 14 communities in south Oakland County, where, like in south Macomb County, the sewer and water outflow systems are combined.

A group of about 10 state lawmakers were given a tour of the Kuhn Basin facility about a month ago, but Robinson and St. Germaine said it was virtually worthless. Robinson called it “a joke” as questions posed by the lawmakers were not answered directly or at all.

Macomb officials believe the Kuhn’s release of contaminated water into the Red Run Drain not only damages the drain and impacts those living along it but contributes to contamination of the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair, including the accumulating “muck” each year along the lakeshore, impacting waterfront residences.

With the George Kuhn Basin being one of the largest of its kind in the country, St. Germaine said she believes the large volume of water it releases into the Red Run helps create the muck by stirring up lake-bottom algae. She said the Kuhn Basin contributes 20% of the water that enters Lake St. Clair.

She is hopeful that ongoing water-flow studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Defense will not only shed light on the issues but may give Macomb County officials “a leg to stand on” to sue Oakland County.