Jeff Alexander the Muskegon Chronicle recently reported that the amount of sewage overflows in Michigan overall is down by 30 percent, which is great, optimism is important when dealing with environmental issues.
But...According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality 88 percent of all of the raw and partially treated sewage that entered our waterways in 2007 was from Detroit. 23 billion gallons of raw sewage entered Metro Detroit waterways as a result of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). Most old sewers in big cities use the same sewer system for sewage and stormwater. When there are heavy rains it causes the sewer system to overflow and release sewage into the local waterways. These events are referred to as Combined Sewer Overflows or (CSOs).
The current numbers speak for themselves. Detroit released 23 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage in 2007 while the rest of Michigan only released 3 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage. What's worse is this doesn't account for the CSOs that occur in Windsor.
A recent Great Lakes Sewage Report Card by the Sierra Legal fund graded major cities in the Great Lakes on how much sewage they released into the waterways. Detroit was rated number one, while Windsor was number three, a double whammy.
We need to do better, the lakes are the entire regions biggest asset and will be the key to economic revitilization.
Other article of interest:
Speaker: Stop using Great Lakes as lavatory
The Crappies
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