Abstract

A number of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s (DWSD) wholesale customers experience effects of sanitary sewer overflows (SSO), including basement flooding. As part of DWSD’s wastewater master plan (WWMP) project, the city has investigated various local and regional alternatives for SSO control.

SSOs, releases of untreated sewage into the environment, are illegal in Michigan. Related to basement flooding, SSOs have the potential to cause property damage and may present public health concerns. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) policy is to identify sanitary sewer overflows, and take appropriate action to eliminate them.

Several customers approached DWSD to request additional contract capacity as an approach for eliminating SSOs in their collection system, and in spring of 2001, DWSD and its customers began a collaborative process to examine solutions to eliminate the public health and water quality impacts of SSOs in the regional collection system. The purpose of this study was to find a cost-effective solution for SSO elimination in the service area. The following alternatives were evaluated:

1) elimination of the sources of high infiltration/inflow (I/I) that cause SSOs,

2) local storage or treatment of SSOs, and

3) regional transmission, storage, and treatment of SSOs.

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