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Three million gallons of sewage, a contaminated river, and Michigan’s water infrastructure woes
Last week, Saginaw Township’s wastewater retention and treatment basins overflowed. After just over two inches of rainfall stressed the outdated sewer infrastructure to its failing point, over three million gallons of partially treated sewage was released into the Tittabawassee River.
E. coli levels in the river were already astronomically high, over seven times the state standard of 300 organisms per 100 mL of water. The influx of three million gallons of sewage brought E. coli levels in the river up to nearly eight times the state standard. The Tittabawassee River meets the Saginaw River
Update on Nestle’s attempt to withdraw and privatize more of Michigan’s water
Over the course of the last winter, Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality held a public comment period on Nestle again asking to increase the amount of water that they take from a well in Osceola Township, Michigan. Clean Water Action members from across the state made their voices heard.
Michigan’s Outdated and Dangerous Combined Sewer Systems
Many of Michigan’s urban and suburban areas expanded rapidly between the 1920s and the 1950s — an era with different priorities for water management. Many of Michigan’s water systems were originally built as combined systems, meaning the pipes carried both stormwater and wastewater. These systems simply discharged all water directly into local lakes, rivers, and streams, without treatment. Wastewater treatment centers were built later, and the combined sewer pipes were redirected there for the water to be processed before being released back into the water table. Starting in the mid-1950s
Protecting Michigan’s Waters: Infrastructure for the Future
Michigan is the Great Lakes state. As such, Michigan residents are acutely aware of our duty to protect the Great Lakes and our water resources for future generations. There are currently many threats to our water here in Michigan. Most of these threats have been looming for years, but action on them has been pushed off, as our legislature procrastinates and ignores the problems instead of taking the hard steps that action requires.
The Flint water crisis brought the dangers of lead infrastructure and poor oversight from the state to the surface and a city was poisoned as a result. Every year
Michigan’s Aging Septic Systems
E. coli is a major bacterial pollutant in Michigan’s water. While E. coli is commonly talked about in reference to combined sewer overflows and large-scale agricultural operations, there is another major source of E. coli in our water that every state in the country other than Michigan has worked to eliminate — leaking and failing septic systems.
Michigan is currently the only state that does not require regular inspections of septic systems, and the problem is only getting worse with time. Septic systems are generally found in rural areas where municipal sewer systems don’t exist, or in older