August Flooding Toll: 4.5 Billion Gallons Of Sewage Released In Detroit
etro Detroit treatment plants released about 4.5 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into local streams and rivers as a result of last week’s massive rainstorm, according to a preliminary report from the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Of the nearly 9.8 billion gallons of sewage released on Aug. 11, about 46 percent of it was raw sewage, sewage diluted by excess storm water or partially treated sewage, DEQ official Laura Verona said Friday.
“It was a very large event,” but not necessarily one of the region’s biggest, said Phil Argiroff, permit section chief of the DEQ’s Water Resources Division.
In late November 2011, Detroit’s sewer system alone released 9 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage, Argiroff said. And November 2011 was a particularly wet month, he said. The 4.5 billion gallons of sewage would be the equivalent of submerging Detroit’s Belle Isle in about 14 feet of water.
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