Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash insists the treated storm-and-waste water that flows from the George W. Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin is “crystal clear.”

Nash made the comment last week while defending against accusations from officials in Macomb County that water released from the basin into the Red Run Drain is contaminated and contributes to polluted waters entering the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair. Macomb officials say it has contributed to Lake St. Clair muck and beach closings.

“My facility produces crystal-clear water,” Nash said in an interview. “We’re not contributing contaminated water (to the Red Run). We’re contributing water. There’s a big difference. The water we put out from our facility is cleaner than all of the water that goes into the Red Run Drain.”

He said multiple studies of water released from the GWK have shown “we’re not responsible” for contaminated water in the Red Run.

That is contrary to what many Macomb officials have believed for years, and they have pressured the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to strengthen permit requirements. EGLE last month proposed several additional requirements to its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and recently received public input on its proposals.

The leader of the charge, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, said Friday in response, “To say the water is crystal clear is mind boggling to me,” he said. “It’s bizarre.”

She noted that Macomb County also dumps large plumes of water contaminated from its retention basins along the Lake St. Clair shore in St. Clair Shores. Video of such a spill shows a large plume of a dark brown substance spreading in the water.

“It’s the same as his; that’s what they all are,” she said. “There’s a bunch of them all over the state. They’re all the same. We have the same permit, the same regulations.”

Miller’s concerns have been echoed by the county Board of Commissioners, several Macomb County communities and a group of 10 GOP state representatives from the county as well as Democratic state Sen. Kevin Hertel of St. Clair Shores.

Nash said Macomb officials have failed to prove the Kuhn basin is contaminated the Red Run.

“If she (Miller) shows us data that shows we’re contaminating, we are willing to look at that. We don’t want to contaminate,” he said.

The Kuhn basin in Madison Heights, which is one of the largest in the country, only fills enough to require treatment and a release an average of eight times per year, during heavy rainfall, Nash said.

He said 97% of the water that enters Kuhn is storm water while 3% is sewage that comes from the combined water-sewer pipes from 180,000 residents of the 350,000 it serves.

He conceded an incident occurred last May when untreated water was released into the Red Run due to a mechanical failure — a door that was supposed to open to treat water with chlorine remained closed.

Nash noted the irony of one of the proposed new requirements by the state is to determine whether Kuhn operators over-chlorinate their water, which is damaging to the environment and aquatic life.

“If we’re using chlorine too much, by definition, we’re not putting contaminated water downstream because what decontaminates the water is the chlorine,” he said.

Nash also conceded that there has been discharges from what is known as the “Dequindre pipe,” a sanitary sewer in Oakland. Unlike a combined water-sewer pipe, it only carries sewage from central and north Oakland.

He said his office, Miller’s office and the Great Lakes Water Authority are working on a “plan to change how flows are downstream” of the GWK.

He said those releases are necessary “to protect people’s basements.”

Nash accused Macomb County of not doing enough to reduce contamination of waterways.

“They’re complaining about us but they have a lot or work do to at the Public Works office,” he said.

Macomb County has spent over $100 million on several projects in recent years to reduce Combine Sewer Overflows into Lake St. Clair from the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin by a total of 75%, and from the Martin Retention Treatment Basin by 50%, Miller said.

Nash said he believes the city of Warren has contributed to Red Run and Lake St. Clair contamination, but noted that the opening of the new Stephens Road Detention Basin on Stephens Road, east of Groesbeck Highway will reduce releases of sewage and basement flooding.

He said Warren released 1.4 billion gallons of raw sewage over the past 18 years into a drain that eventually flows to Lake St. Clair.

The capacity of the area served by the Kuhn basin increased by 25-million gallons in 2023 with the completion of the I-75 Modernization Project from Eight to 13 Mile roads, which included building a massive water storage and flow that comes from the freeway during rainfalls, Nash said. The system replaced seven pumps along the stretch.

Phil Roos, director of EGLE, on Feb. 5 outlined proposed changes to the state permit for the Kuhn Basin that allows discharges. They are:

Study and develop a schedule over 18 months to meet limits on the amount of chlorine is used to treat sewage

“Evaluate additional grey infrastructure opportunities in the tributary collection area for cost-effective control and flow reduction measures.

Meet new standards that could come as a result of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study and/or a study by the U.S. Department of Defense if the studies determine “there are downstream flood control issues or erosion issues.”

Comply with a “regional operational plan” being developed by the Great Lakes Water Authority, a “collaborative effort between the GLWA and communities tributary to the GLWA Water Resource Recovery Facility,” including the George Kuhn Basin.

Nash’s office also “is implementing the approved Illicit Discharge Elimination Program by working with municipalities to identify and track sources for elimination” following its 2023 and 2024 completion of screening of Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems of outfalls from communities downstream from the George Kuhn Basin.

Officials from Macomb three weeks later submitted proposals for additional mandates. They are:

Reduce from three to two years the amount of time Oakland must come up with suggestions on potential infrastructure upgrades.

Make it mandatory for Oakland to reduce excessive flooding due to George W. Kuhn discharges if a study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “links” the discharges to flooding, and “expand the study scope to include tributaries like Bear Creek, which contribute to backflow flooding.”

In addition to the dechlorination feasibility study, Oakland should reduce the level of residual chlorine that it discharges into the Red Run.

Address the Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs), that are discharged into the Red Run and into the Dequindre Interceptor with a study and plan.

Require Oakland Water Resources to notify Macomb Public Works of any Combined Sewer Overflows.

Require Oakland to comply with “a regional operational plan developed by the Great Lakes Water Authority.

Regarding the next step by the state, EGLE spokesman Jeff Johnstone said: “If the permit is revised and the revisions are deemed significant enough, the permit may be public-noticed again. This process might take up to a couple of months, at the end of which EGLE may reissue the permit.”