Defenders

Macomb County, Detroit officials call for investigation into pump station ‘failure’

Independent investigation requested to identify potential issues at Conner Creek

Shawn Ley, Reporter

Dane Kelly, Web Producer

Published: July 1, 2021, 6:28 PM

DETROIT – Officials in Macomb County and Detroit are calling for an investigation after a pump station allegedly failed, causing a water backup into Macomb County.

Read: Official: Macomb County had to dump 96M gallons of treated sewage due to Detroit pump station failure

Macomb County Public Works commissioner Candice Miller called out the Great Lakes Water Authority. She claims the Conner Creek pump was understaffed, unprepared and lacked a backup generator as storm water and sewage flooded home after home in Jefferson Chalmers and the Grosse Pointes.

See: Metro Detroiters share photos of weekend flooding

Great Lakes Water Authority CEO Sue McCormick said there was a disruption in service, but “at no time was the pump station offline.”

Detroit Water and Sewerage director Gary Brown also wants an independent investigation into the Conner Creek station.

“We all want answers. We all want the same thing,” Brown said. “We will figure that out in the very near future.”

“There was a bad management failure there to operate that plant,” Miller said.

Learn how to report flood damage or receive help amid the flooding right here.

The Great Lakes Water Authority released the following statement Thursday afternoon:

“It is not uncommon for unanticipated operational issues to be associated with an event of this magnitude. There was a brief period early in the rain event on Friday where the Conner Creek Pump Station experienced a partial disruption in service; at no time was the pump station off-line. The GLWA team worked quickly to make repairs and the pump station was returned to full operational status in under one hour. Even with this partial disruption, at all times there were pumps running throughout the system. GLWA has begun an after-action review that will examine the regional system’s response to this rain event, during which more rain fell within 13 hours than typically falls during the entire month of June. It is important to note that the system functioned to its design capacity, the amount and the intensity of the rain received would have overwhelmed any combined collection system.”
Sue McCormick, Chief Executive Officer, GLWA.

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About the Authors

Shawn Ley

Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.

Dane Kelly

Dane is a producer and media enthusiast. He previously worked freelance video production and writing jobs in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts. Dane graduated from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.

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