Some Macomb County commissioners would like to see more water testing – Macomb Daily
Some Macomb County commissioners sent a message to the county’s top health official this week saying they want more testing of Lake St. Clair and its tributaries to determine pollution levels during the most critical times.
Commissioner Don VanSyckel of Sterling Heights introduced an initiative at a Board of Commissioners committee meeting calling on the county to increase testing, especially after heavy rains that typically cause combined sewage from Oakland and Macomb counties to discharge into the lakes’ tributaries. But VanSyckel said Oakland discharges far more water than Macomb.
“I believe we need to do more for the citizens,” VanSyckel said Monday at the meeting in the county administration building.
VanSyckel spoke of “large plumes” of brown-colored, partially treated sewage entering the lake after heavy rains and CSOs occurred in Oakland.
Both Macomb and Oakland Counties discharged partially treated wastewater during and after the heavy rains on August 6.
The county health department currently tests Lake St. Clair, its beaches and its tributaries for E. coli only on Mondays and Wednesdays during the summer months.
But VanSyckel said he would like to see testing done after heavy rains to give lake and waterway users more timely warnings. Or, he said, more testing could be done more frequently.
“We should test the day after a heavy rain,” agreed Commissioner Gus Ganham of Warren.
Andrew Cox, the county’s director of health and human services, responded that the days of the week could not be changed due to protocols, but could be expanded with more funding.
“If you need more money, we will give you more money,” Ganham replied at the meeting.
Cox told officials he would support the committee in any direction to expand testing, provided the funds were made available.
“We will make it possible,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
Ganham said he lives along the Red Run Drain, where he often smells a stench after heavy rains caused by Oakland County’s discharge of partially treated sewage from the George W. Kuhn Retention Basin in Madison Heights.
“I can still smell it days after it passes the shore,” Ganham said.
CSOs have existed in Macomb and Oakland counties for decades, but they have received more attention recently as Macomb County authorities have been pressuring the state in recent weeks to force Oakland to reduce its CSOs as Macomb has reduced its overflows.
Cox appeared before the committee and advocated that the county accept an additional $36,000 in state funding to test for E. coli at beaches and other locations – 52 waterways in total. Exposure to E. coli can cause illness and serious health consequences.
He said that while reports of people becoming ill from contact with E. coli are relatively common, they are usually due to eating contaminated food, although the source is sometimes difficult to determine. There have been no cases this summer of anyone becoming ill with E. coli from contact with lake or river water, he added.
The county has been using an advanced technology called “qPCR,” an acronym for quantitative polymerase chain reaction, for several years to provide test results more quickly, replacing an earlier, less expensive test. Results are available within four hours, compared to 24 to 48 hours with the previous method, Cox said. This allows the county to notify the public more quickly when a beach is closed.
The additional funding will allow testing to begin earlier in the season, such as April 1 instead of around Memorial Day, and extend testing beyond the September 1 testing date to around October 1.
“This allows us to test the entire beach season as it gets warmer later and earlier in the season,” Cox said in an interview.
The county also received an additional $22,700 to test for E. coli and “harmful algal blooms,” which can produce microcystins, toxins that are dangerous to humans and animals.
None were found in Macomb this year, but Cox noted that their abundance peaks in late summer and early fall.
Washington Township Board Chairman Don Brown said he believes the county has some of the best testing capabilities in the country and the effort to increase testing is “a step in the right direction.”
In related matters, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the county are in the midst of a two-year, $400,000 study of the sludge that is accumulating and damaging parts of the lakeshore. The sludge, once called “Lyngbya,” is a bacterium that now has the biological name Microseira wollei, or “M. wollei.”
Candice Miller, county public works officer, believes CSOs are contributing to M. wollei in Lake St. Clair.
Although the Department of Public Works does not test open waters, it does test wastewater components illegally discharged into sewers for E. coli as part of its Illicit Discharge Elimination Program, said spokesman Norb Franz.
“If it is discovered, we try to trace it back to a possible illegal source/discharge point,” he said.
That program is being enhanced thanks to Army Corps grants that are being used for more advanced testing, Franz said. Positive samples will undergo a microbial source test to determine if the E. coli came from an animal or other wildlife or contains human DNA.
“The grant will allow us to expand our current testing to essentially test water flowing from anywhere in the Clinton River basin and improve water quality,” he said.
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