There has been a lot of rhetoric lately about Michigan's loss of revenue from imported garbage. We are importing less trash due to the struggling economy. Or in other words, people are consuming less. A few years ago I worked for Clean Water Action and if there is one thing that most Metro Detroiters agree on, it is that importing garbage from neighboring states is a bad deal.
Another bad deal is relying on imported garbage to fund necessary programs. In this case, Great Lakes Echo reports that the garbage fees go towards landfill inspection to make sure that the landfill is safe. This creates a paradox. The more garbage we take in, the more liability we assume. What do we get out of it? If we're lucky we can fund the landfill inspection program. It is easy to see that this is a bad deal for Michigan.
Other states don't charge Michigan's measly 21 cents per ton, because they know that importing trash is bad business. Ohio charges $4.75 per ton while Wisconsin charges $12.98 per ton. The solution seems to be to modestly raise the rate 35 cents according to the Great Lakes Echo article. That would help short-term, but something is fundamentally broken here. Relying on imported garbage to raise revenue just shows how desperate and cash strapped the state is.
Here are the top 5 five counties for solid waste imports measured by cubic volume.
Macomb County: 3,741,197
Wayne: 2,855,857
Genesee: 2,393,825
Monroe: 1,742,990
Berrien: 1,277,146
MDEQ Report of Solid Waste Landfilled in Michigan
When a garbage decline is bad for the environment
Opportunity at the trash dumps
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
2009 Metro Detroit Sewage Numbers
Last year was a bad year for combined sewage overflows in Metro Detroit. Over 37 billion gallons of sewage overflowed into Metro Detroit waterways in 2009. This total was an 11 billion gallon increase from 2008.
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) occur when it rains. Older sewer systems receive municipal waste along with storm water. During heavy rains the sewers fill up and rather than having sewage back up into streets and basements, the sewage is then released into the local waterways.
The main way that Metro Detroit is dealing with sewage treatment is by building retention treatment basins. These basins hold the excess storm water and sewage and are supposed to hold and treat the wastewater. What often happens is that the sewage only gets partially treated. This means that the sewage is treated with chlorine and the solids are allowed to settle. This is better than just releasing raw sewage but it does not get rid of all of the dangerous pathogens.
All sewage categories were unusually high in 2009. One category that was higher than normal was diluted raw sewage. In 2008 there were 1.2 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage released into metro Detroit waterways while 2009 brought over 5 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage. This is significant because this is untreated sewage. To put it in perspective how high this number is consider that in 2007 the rest of the entire state of Michigan excluding Wayne County only had 3 billion gallons of CSOs.
The annual rainfall for Detroit was nearly the same. The total rainfall for 2008 was 33.98 inches while 2009 brought a little bit more rain for a total of 34.12 inches. It is hard to blame the rain for this large increase in CSOs.
The majority of these high sewage numbers occurred during nine wet weather events where each time at least a billion gallons of partially treated sewage and diluted raw sewage were released into the waterways. The biggest CSO of the year occurred between March 7 and March 16. A total of over 8.6 billion gallons of sewage overflowed into the Detroit and Rouge Rivers. 6.9 billion gallons were partially treated sewage while the other 1.7 billion gallons was diluted raw sewage.
The nine biggest Wayne County CSO events yielded 75 percent of the total Wayne County CSO releases. Over 90 percent of the diluted raw sewage releases for Wayne County also occurred during these nine events.
Despite the recent problems much progress has been made. Consider that in 1988 there were 613 CSO outfalls throughout Michigan. As of 2008 that number has been reduced to 154 CSO outfalls. Recently though, progress has stalled.
The biggest problem that municipalities are facing comes down to money. It is really expensive to overhaul the sewer systems. The Upper Rouge Tunnel Project would have greatly reduced CSOs for Metro Detroit but it had to be abandoned last April because of the $1.2 billion cost. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) would have had to hike water rates 16 percent and that was seen as unreasonable in today’s economy.
The Upper Rouge Tunnel Project was part of a court mandate to reduce CSOs into the Rouge River. This was part of the conditions of 2008 litigation brought by the EPA. The city has until 2015 to comply with the court order. Now that the project has been canceled the DWSD is drafting new plans. Two possible outcomes are a smaller tunnel, though that has already been rejected once, partly because Michigan has stricter wastewater standards than the EPA. The other possible outcome could be getting more time to comply.
There are other less expensive methods to curbing CSO overflows. One is green infrastructure. There are things that anyone can do such as using rain barrels to collect rainwater rather than directing rainwater to sewers. You can use the collected water to irrigate your flowers or garden.
Other green infrastructure solutions include green roofs. Where gardens are planted on roofs to reduce rainwater, these roofs also last longer than your conventional roof though the initial installation cost is higher.
Any time you can avoid directing rainwater to the sewers you are helping to combat CSOs. A lot of this can be achieved through rethinking how we design structures such as buildings or parking lots. A simple green oasis can help reduce the burden of CSOs on waterways and is aesthetically pleasing.
These are important issues since global warming is expected to change precipitation patterns in the Great Lakes. It will rain less often, but when it does rain it will be intense storms. This will wreak havoc on the local waterways if our infrastructure is not updated.
These are how the numbers shake out for 2009:
Macomb County
Partailly Treated Sewage: 2,092
Diluted Raw sewage: None
Raw Sewage: 3
Oakland County
Raw sewage: 12 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: None
Partially Treated Sewage: 139 million gallons
St. Clair County
Raw sewage: 13 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 57 million gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 156 million gallons
Wayne County
Raw sewage: 156 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 4.95 Billion gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 29.2 Billion gallons
Blended Effluent: 574 million gallons
Totals
Raw sewage: 184 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 5 billion gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 31.4 billion gallons
Blended Effluent: 574 million gallons
Total: 37.2 billion gallons
These are my 2009 totals in excel format available for download HERE.
It has every individual release along with where and when it happened along with which waterways were affected. I also summarized the ten biggest CSO events of the year.
All of this data came from the MDEQ website.
(Important note)
There are gaps in data for Dearborn. Of 54 total combined sewer overflow events for Dearborn, 28 event dates had a volume total for the amount of partially treated sewage released into the waterways. The other 26 CSO events had incomplete data. Between the beginning of 2009 and July 11, there were 968 gallons of partially treated sewage released into the waterways from Dearborn. After July 11, Dearborn quit reporting the total volume of sewage that was released into the environment.
More Resources
Steve Neavling wrote a great story in the Free Press on the sewers today:
Aging sewage systems breed record bacteria in our waters
This is a great story about the sewage overflow issue from The Windsor Star:
Windsor cleans up act as Detroit spews sewage into river
Anybody that wants to see the Rouge River up close and personal should check out the book Up the Rouge! by Joel Thurtell.
Toxic Waters New York Times Series
EPA Report on Climate Change and CSO Mitigation on the Great Lakes
Green Cities, Great Lakes: The Green Infrastructure Report
by Jason Tafilowski
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) occur when it rains. Older sewer systems receive municipal waste along with storm water. During heavy rains the sewers fill up and rather than having sewage back up into streets and basements, the sewage is then released into the local waterways.
The main way that Metro Detroit is dealing with sewage treatment is by building retention treatment basins. These basins hold the excess storm water and sewage and are supposed to hold and treat the wastewater. What often happens is that the sewage only gets partially treated. This means that the sewage is treated with chlorine and the solids are allowed to settle. This is better than just releasing raw sewage but it does not get rid of all of the dangerous pathogens.
All sewage categories were unusually high in 2009. One category that was higher than normal was diluted raw sewage. In 2008 there were 1.2 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage released into metro Detroit waterways while 2009 brought over 5 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage. This is significant because this is untreated sewage. To put it in perspective how high this number is consider that in 2007 the rest of the entire state of Michigan excluding Wayne County only had 3 billion gallons of CSOs.
The annual rainfall for Detroit was nearly the same. The total rainfall for 2008 was 33.98 inches while 2009 brought a little bit more rain for a total of 34.12 inches. It is hard to blame the rain for this large increase in CSOs.
The majority of these high sewage numbers occurred during nine wet weather events where each time at least a billion gallons of partially treated sewage and diluted raw sewage were released into the waterways. The biggest CSO of the year occurred between March 7 and March 16. A total of over 8.6 billion gallons of sewage overflowed into the Detroit and Rouge Rivers. 6.9 billion gallons were partially treated sewage while the other 1.7 billion gallons was diluted raw sewage.
The nine biggest Wayne County CSO events yielded 75 percent of the total Wayne County CSO releases. Over 90 percent of the diluted raw sewage releases for Wayne County also occurred during these nine events.
Despite the recent problems much progress has been made. Consider that in 1988 there were 613 CSO outfalls throughout Michigan. As of 2008 that number has been reduced to 154 CSO outfalls. Recently though, progress has stalled.
The biggest problem that municipalities are facing comes down to money. It is really expensive to overhaul the sewer systems. The Upper Rouge Tunnel Project would have greatly reduced CSOs for Metro Detroit but it had to be abandoned last April because of the $1.2 billion cost. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) would have had to hike water rates 16 percent and that was seen as unreasonable in today’s economy.
The Upper Rouge Tunnel Project was part of a court mandate to reduce CSOs into the Rouge River. This was part of the conditions of 2008 litigation brought by the EPA. The city has until 2015 to comply with the court order. Now that the project has been canceled the DWSD is drafting new plans. Two possible outcomes are a smaller tunnel, though that has already been rejected once, partly because Michigan has stricter wastewater standards than the EPA. The other possible outcome could be getting more time to comply.
There are other less expensive methods to curbing CSO overflows. One is green infrastructure. There are things that anyone can do such as using rain barrels to collect rainwater rather than directing rainwater to sewers. You can use the collected water to irrigate your flowers or garden.
Other green infrastructure solutions include green roofs. Where gardens are planted on roofs to reduce rainwater, these roofs also last longer than your conventional roof though the initial installation cost is higher.
Any time you can avoid directing rainwater to the sewers you are helping to combat CSOs. A lot of this can be achieved through rethinking how we design structures such as buildings or parking lots. A simple green oasis can help reduce the burden of CSOs on waterways and is aesthetically pleasing.
These are important issues since global warming is expected to change precipitation patterns in the Great Lakes. It will rain less often, but when it does rain it will be intense storms. This will wreak havoc on the local waterways if our infrastructure is not updated.
These are how the numbers shake out for 2009:
Macomb County
Partailly Treated Sewage: 2,092
Diluted Raw sewage: None
Raw Sewage: 3
Oakland County
Raw sewage: 12 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: None
Partially Treated Sewage: 139 million gallons
St. Clair County
Raw sewage: 13 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 57 million gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 156 million gallons
Wayne County
Raw sewage: 156 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 4.95 Billion gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 29.2 Billion gallons
Blended Effluent: 574 million gallons
Totals
Raw sewage: 184 million gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 5 billion gallons
Partially Treated Sewage: 31.4 billion gallons
Blended Effluent: 574 million gallons
Total: 37.2 billion gallons
These are my 2009 totals in excel format available for download HERE.
It has every individual release along with where and when it happened along with which waterways were affected. I also summarized the ten biggest CSO events of the year.
All of this data came from the MDEQ website.
(Important note)
There are gaps in data for Dearborn. Of 54 total combined sewer overflow events for Dearborn, 28 event dates had a volume total for the amount of partially treated sewage released into the waterways. The other 26 CSO events had incomplete data. Between the beginning of 2009 and July 11, there were 968 gallons of partially treated sewage released into the waterways from Dearborn. After July 11, Dearborn quit reporting the total volume of sewage that was released into the environment.
More Resources
Steve Neavling wrote a great story in the Free Press on the sewers today:
Aging sewage systems breed record bacteria in our waters
This is a great story about the sewage overflow issue from The Windsor Star:
Windsor cleans up act as Detroit spews sewage into river
Anybody that wants to see the Rouge River up close and personal should check out the book Up the Rouge! by Joel Thurtell.
Toxic Waters New York Times Series
EPA Report on Climate Change and CSO Mitigation on the Great Lakes
Green Cities, Great Lakes: The Green Infrastructure Report
by Jason Tafilowski
Asian Carp: Politics as Usual
My last blog was about the asian carp it seems fitting that I will start up again with that issue on the day that the US Supreme Court decided to not temporarily shut down the navigational locks to keep out the Asian carp.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox brought the suit in late December after Asian carp DNA was found past the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal's electric barrier. The order brought open an old Supreme Court case that left open a challenge to the Chicago diversion if it could be shown that the diversion was doing harm to the Great Lakes.
Since the lawsuit was brought Cox quickly got Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, and Minnesota on board with the lawsuit since recreational fishing in the Great Lakes is estimated at $7 billion. The only people openly against temporarily shutting down the locks were Illinois officials like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill), U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorsen (D-Ill), and Obama's Great Lakes czar Cameron Davis.
Make no mistake about it the do-nothing approach is a risky move politically. It shows an irrational unwillingness to work with the neighboring states. The refusal to at least temporarily shut down the locks until a solution can be found is borderline insane and reckless. There is a fighting chance to stop the Asian carp and to save recreational boating and the fishery and instead of using every tool we can to stop it, Illinois officials have doomed us all to a do-nothing approach. They have chose local special interests over everyone's interests.
If the Asian carp does get into the Great Lakes everyone will know who to blame. There will be a nasty political fallout. One could argue that is already happening. After the 15-month old Great Lakes Compact was signed into law bringing all of the Great Lakes together in a unified act of legislation, we are becoming divided. It didn't have to end up this way. We could have worked together to try to stop the carp and there wouldn't be a scapegoat, instead it is just politics as usual.
Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan; Supreme Court rejects remedy
Supreme Court turns down Asian carp remedy
Carp-fighting lawsuit doesn't aim to flood Chicago
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox brought the suit in late December after Asian carp DNA was found past the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal's electric barrier. The order brought open an old Supreme Court case that left open a challenge to the Chicago diversion if it could be shown that the diversion was doing harm to the Great Lakes.
Since the lawsuit was brought Cox quickly got Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, and Minnesota on board with the lawsuit since recreational fishing in the Great Lakes is estimated at $7 billion. The only people openly against temporarily shutting down the locks were Illinois officials like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill), U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorsen (D-Ill), and Obama's Great Lakes czar Cameron Davis.
Make no mistake about it the do-nothing approach is a risky move politically. It shows an irrational unwillingness to work with the neighboring states. The refusal to at least temporarily shut down the locks until a solution can be found is borderline insane and reckless. There is a fighting chance to stop the Asian carp and to save recreational boating and the fishery and instead of using every tool we can to stop it, Illinois officials have doomed us all to a do-nothing approach. They have chose local special interests over everyone's interests.
If the Asian carp does get into the Great Lakes everyone will know who to blame. There will be a nasty political fallout. One could argue that is already happening. After the 15-month old Great Lakes Compact was signed into law bringing all of the Great Lakes together in a unified act of legislation, we are becoming divided. It didn't have to end up this way. We could have worked together to try to stop the carp and there wouldn't be a scapegoat, instead it is just politics as usual.
Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan; Supreme Court rejects remedy
Supreme Court turns down Asian carp remedy
Carp-fighting lawsuit doesn't aim to flood Chicago
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The March of the Carp
To truly understand how catastrophic Asian carp would be to the Great Lakes you have to actually see it. It would without a doubt ruin the recreational boating and fishing. This is one of the most underrated issues confronting the Great Lakes today.
Here are some useful links.
Carp barrier must work BETTER than advertised
Asian Carp.org
Here are some useful links.
Carp barrier must work BETTER than advertised
Asian Carp.org
Thursday, March 19, 2009
New Toxic Release Inventory Is In
The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is in. Each state requires facilities to voluntarily report all air emissions. Below are a couple of links to the EPA's TRI websites.
EPA TRI Explorer State Fact Sheets
EPA TRI Explorer Chemical Report
EPA TRI Explorer State Fact Sheets
EPA TRI Explorer Chemical Report
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Plunging the Numbers, 2008 Sewage Report
2008 was another grim year for water quality as combined sewer overflows were up slightly from last year in the Metro Detroit area.
A combined sewer overflow is when the sewer system gets overwhelmed during a storm and the storm water and sewage from homes releases into the waterways rather than back up into the streets.
In recent years many local projects have been aimed at helping the overburdened Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant with the construction of retention ponds. Without a doubt it has helped, when there is a heavy rain these retention ponds act as holding tanks to hold the overflowed storm water and sewage. The solids are allowed to settle and then the water is treated with chlorine to kill bacteria, then the water is released into the waterways. This is called partially treated sewage.
Another big project that is in its early stages is the $600 million Upper Rouge Tunnel project. The project calls for a tunnel adjacent to the banks of the Rouge River and is designed to hold 218 million gallons of storm water at 28 combined sewer overflow locations throughout the Detroit area.
So how did Metro Detroit do this year?
The grand total for all categories of sewage releases, (including raw sewage, partially, treated sewage, and diluted raw sewage) for St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties was over 26 billion gallons of sewage.
Metro Detroit releases far more sewage into the waterways than anywhere else in Michigan. Last year Wayne county released 23 billion gallons of sewage while the rest of Michigan released only 3 billion gallons.
These large sewage releases are of concern in light of a recent Metro Times article reporting that the USGS is shutting down water quality testing in the Rouge River due to budget cuts. The problem with this is it will be impossible to gauge any future water quality progress or deterioration in the years to come.
Another interesting aspect of this is that Canadian sewage overflows are not publicly reported. The Canadian Ministry of Environment collects some data but it is often inconsistent. In 2006 a Canadian environmental organization; Ecojustice rated Windsor as the third worst city in the Great Lakes for combined sewer overflows. This is an important thing to keep in mind when looking at the numbers.
Here is how the individual numbers break down for each county.
Wayne County
Partially Treated Sewage: 23.2 Billion gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 1.2 Billion Gallons
Raw Sewage: 103 million gallons
Oakland County
Partially Treated Sewage: 119 million gallons
Raw Sewage: 4 million gallons
Macomb County
Partially Treated Sewage: 1.3 billion gallons
Raw Sewage: 2 million gallons
St. Clair County
Partially Treated Sewage: 60.7 million gallons
Raw Sewage: 3.9 million gallons
A combined sewer overflow is when the sewer system gets overwhelmed during a storm and the storm water and sewage from homes releases into the waterways rather than back up into the streets.
In recent years many local projects have been aimed at helping the overburdened Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant with the construction of retention ponds. Without a doubt it has helped, when there is a heavy rain these retention ponds act as holding tanks to hold the overflowed storm water and sewage. The solids are allowed to settle and then the water is treated with chlorine to kill bacteria, then the water is released into the waterways. This is called partially treated sewage.
Another big project that is in its early stages is the $600 million Upper Rouge Tunnel project. The project calls for a tunnel adjacent to the banks of the Rouge River and is designed to hold 218 million gallons of storm water at 28 combined sewer overflow locations throughout the Detroit area.
So how did Metro Detroit do this year?
The grand total for all categories of sewage releases, (including raw sewage, partially, treated sewage, and diluted raw sewage) for St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties was over 26 billion gallons of sewage.
Metro Detroit releases far more sewage into the waterways than anywhere else in Michigan. Last year Wayne county released 23 billion gallons of sewage while the rest of Michigan released only 3 billion gallons.
These large sewage releases are of concern in light of a recent Metro Times article reporting that the USGS is shutting down water quality testing in the Rouge River due to budget cuts. The problem with this is it will be impossible to gauge any future water quality progress or deterioration in the years to come.
Another interesting aspect of this is that Canadian sewage overflows are not publicly reported. The Canadian Ministry of Environment collects some data but it is often inconsistent. In 2006 a Canadian environmental organization; Ecojustice rated Windsor as the third worst city in the Great Lakes for combined sewer overflows. This is an important thing to keep in mind when looking at the numbers.
Here is how the individual numbers break down for each county.
Wayne County
Partially Treated Sewage: 23.2 Billion gallons
Diluted Raw Sewage: 1.2 Billion Gallons
Raw Sewage: 103 million gallons
Oakland County
Partially Treated Sewage: 119 million gallons
Raw Sewage: 4 million gallons
Macomb County
Partially Treated Sewage: 1.3 billion gallons
Raw Sewage: 2 million gallons
St. Clair County
Partially Treated Sewage: 60.7 million gallons
Raw Sewage: 3.9 million gallons
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