Macomb County outlines multi‑million dollar sewer separation plan; St. Clair Shores awarded $23M SRF loan for Martin District

Macomb County officials presented a multi‑project plan to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and ease basement flooding in St. Clair Shores, and city staff said the state has offered a $23,000,000 Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan to finance initial phases of separating the Martin District.

Commissioner Candace Miller told the council the county has pursued operational changes and construction to cut overflows “by about 25 to 28%” from early fixes and that larger projects have driven still greater reductions. County presenters described three technical upgrades in detail: modest, low‑cost changes at the Chapin pump station that increased usable storage and added an estimated 8.6 million gallons of capacity; an in‑system storage inflatable bladder that can hold about 3.5 million gallons for certain events; and a multi‑phase canal rehabilitation that increased storage to roughly 17 million gallons and the team estimated yields about a 50% CSO reduction for that basin.

Denise Pike, city staff, said the state notified the city it would be awarded “a $23,000,000 revolving loan or loan from the revolving loan fund for the separation of the Martin District.” Pike said the separation will be a multi‑phase effort (starting with the Alexander area), will include road replacements, and that design work will be submitted next spring. Pike and county staff said the separation was modeled to reduce roughly 8.1 million gallons entering the Martin retention basin during a 10‑year, 24‑hour rain event and to reduce basement‑flooding risk in the study area between I‑94 and Harper.

County engineers said the Jefferson interceptor improvements — adding a second parallel pipe where a bottleneck existed — and operational changes at related pump stations are expected to reduce CSOs at Martin by about 50%. Commissioner Miller described cumulative progress across projects as approaching “75 to 80% reduction,” and outlined funding sources that include federal and state grants, Macomb County allocations and targeted earmarks. Miller also said the county has secured large amounts of outside funding over recent years, telling the council, “in the 9 years that I’ve been here, we’ve raised about a $180,000,000.”

Presenters emphasized constraints at the Martin basin because it is landlocked and said the only robust long‑term remedy is storm/sanitary separation and new outfalls (the Alexander work and a planned Sunnydale outfall were cited). Staff also described a digital twin used to test pump operations and redundancies designed to avoid causing basement flooding when storage devices are deployed.

The council asked about neighborhood impacts and construction disruption; presenters acknowledged short‑term disruptions but noted that streets in separation areas would be replaced as part of the work. County officials also discussed intergovernmental coordination, including engagement with state regulators and outreach pressing neighboring jurisdictions to reduce their discharges into regional drains.

Next steps included meeting state SRF milestone requirements, finalizing design documents in the spring, and continuing coordination among city, county and state partners. The city manager and county staff said the work is intended to reduce CSOs and protect Lake St. Clair while minimizing direct cost increases to local utility customers through grant and loan packaging.