The state has issued a violation against Oakland County’s George W. Kuhn Drainage District for illegal discharges of raw sewage into the Red Run Drain last April and in 2023.

The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy said in a June 27 letter it is pursuing an “escalated enforcement action” against the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner because of continued prohibited discharge of sanitary sewer overflows from the George W. Kuhn Dequindre Interceptor of 1.18 million gallons on April 3 and 2.2 million gallons on Aug. 24, 2023 along Dequindre Road, north of 13 Mile Road, in Madison Heights. The discharges go into the Red Run in Warren that flows into the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair.

The state could fine or seek injunctive relief against Oakland Water Resources and has proposed it agree to a consent deal.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner praised the measures taken by EGLE.

“We are applauding EGLE for taking this punitive action against Oakland County for continued violations of state law prohibiting the discharge of raw sewage that threatens public health and the environment,” Miller said Monday in a news release.

Miller said Oakland Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash has described the permitted discharges of combined sewer overflows from the Kuhn Retention Basin in Warren as “crystal clear.”

“What’s crystal clear today is that the state is not satisfied with Oakland County’s actions for years of repeated sanitary sewer overflows and is ratcheting up the pressure by forcing Oakland to take meaningful steps to prevent further illegal discharges — and rightfully so,” she said. “WRC failed to correct repeated discharges, and obviously their plan to fix their serious problem of dumping on a neighboring county was rejected by the state, leading to this stepped-up enforcement action.”

Miller and other officials in Macomb County have been pressuring the state for the past year to step up actions against Oakland County for discharges into the Red Run. A group of state lawmakers have proposed enhanced actions against Oakland.

The George W. Kuhn District handles combined stormwater and sanitary flow from 14 communities in southeast Oakland County. The associated Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin is one of the largest in the country.

The April 2-3 rainstorm left sanitary wipes and other debris clinging to bushes and trees along the banks of the Red Run Drain, after the high water level subsided. Also, 820 million gallons of partially treated combined sewer overflows were discharged from the basin into the waterway, Miller noted.

Residents along the Red Run have complained of stench coming from the waterway, and Macomb officials question how much the discharges from Oakland contaminate river and lake downstream. Macomb officials also have partially blamed erosion of the drain’s banks on massive discharges by Oakland.

Miller has repeatedly said the only way for Oakland to reduce the volume of overflows into the Red Run Drain is to separate sanitary pipes from homes and businesses from stormwater systems or build new retention basins or expand existing ones.

Nash has defended his organization’s actions, noting discharges from the basin are well within requirements. He has conceded that his office, the Great Lakes Water Authority and Macomb County have been working to try to resolve issues that result in discharges of sewage from the Dequindre Interceptor.

The separation of the storm and sewer systems would be extremely cost prohibitive, Nash says. Nash could not immediately be reached Monday morning.

Oakland violated Part 31 of the state Water Resources Protection of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act of 1994, according to EGLE.

The violations come as the state continues its review of the George W. Kuhn Basin’s expired National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit.

EGLE issued a violation notice to Oakland County on April 29 and told the county to “take immediate action to achieve and maintain compliance” as the state continued its evaluation for potential escalated enforcement.

In its enforcement notice, EGLE has warned Oakland Water Resources that if additional violations occur, it may take additional actions including civil fines, injunctive relief, costs for natural resources damages and costs for the enforcement action including attorney fees. Previously, EGLE also threatened criminal prosecution.

It gave a compliance deadline of July 28.

But attorney Sara Rubino, representing the Oakland WRC, sent a letter to EGLE three days after the notice requesting a meeting with agency officials to discuss the details of the enforcement notice, pointing out enforcement action cannot take place until after a meeting is held.

In its violation letter, the state requested Oakland to:

“1. Review hydraulic models of the sewers to identify areas of high infiltration and inflow.

2. Evaluate the system to identify capacities, restrictions, and limitations upstream and downstream of the Facility that could potentially impact the HGL within the overflow chamber.

3. Identify the status and impact that includes modeling results of implementing operational changes within flow distribution in the George W Kuhn Drainage District.

4. Provide a plan to evaluate the interactions between the GLWA system and the Facility, to identify opportunities for improvement in either or both systems to eliminate these SSOs, and to report the results of this work to EGLE for review.”