FYI: Detroit News--Beach Water Improvement in Macomb County

["Shannon Briggs" <BRIGGSSL@michigan.gov>]

The article is listed below and can be found at
http://www.detnews.com/2004/macomb/0404/16/c05-124650.htm

Friday, April 16, 2004

County water quality improves

Official hails report that reveals drop in bacteria counts

By Gene Schabath / The Detroit News

Doug Martz used to ride around town with toilet plungers on the fenders
of his car and a toilet seat on the roof as a testimony to the serious
pollution problem in Lake St. Clair, the Clinton River and its
tributaries. 

Now, he walks around with a smile on his face. 

That's a tribute to a report released this week by the Macomb County
Health Department that shows bacteria has hit rock bottom in some of the
area's drains that once were the most polluted. 

Martz, chairman of the Macomb Water Quality Board, and other
environmentalists said the low bacteria counts show the decades-long
fight against pollution is paying off. 

"This is fantastic," Martz said. "I've been trying ... for 10 years and
it looks like it's starting to pay off." 

It was in 1994 that Metro Detroit communities realized there was a
serious problem from combined sanitary and storm sewers, inadequate
waste water treatment plants, failed septic systems and illicit drain
connections in which raw sewage was being discharged into rivers and
lakes. 

Metropolitan Beach along Lake St. Clair was closed to swimming for most
of the summer because of chronically high bacteria. 

One of the big culprits was the 12 Towns retention facility in Oakland
County's Madison Heights. Following heavy rains in June 1994, a
half-billion gallons of waste water was discharged during one 24-hour
period into the Red Run Drain, a tributary that empties into the Clinton
River and then Lake St. Clair. 

Oakland County has spent $140 million to expand the facility to handle
larger storms. 

"It looks like it's working," Martz said. 

Health department figures show that despite more rainfall in January
this year compared to 2003, the amount of contaminated water released
into area waterways from 12 Towns and a half-dozen other treatment
plants has plunged. It dropped from 74.6 million gallons in January 2003
to 6.4 million gallons this year. 

Elwin Coll, supervisor of the health department's environmental
division, said one of the most dramatic examples of the decline in
bacteria are from the Lorraine Drain in Warren. 

The monthly average in January was 1,412 colonies of E. coli bacteria
per 100 milliliters of water. Monthly readings above 100 colonies are
considered unsafe for human contact. Last year, the monthly average in
the Lorraine Drain was 30,545. 

You can reach Gene Schabath at (586) 468-3614 or
gschabath@detnews.com.



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