Sinkhole leads to sewage dump into Detroit-area river

Emma Ockerman

Detroit Free Press

Clinton River is shown near Mount Clemens, downstream from Fraser, Mich., where officials dumped raw sewage into the river so it wouldn't back up in basements.

FRASER, Mich. — Raw sewage was being dumped into the Clinton River in the aftermath of a massive sinkhole that opened up here over the weekend.

Heavy rains and melting snows created an overload in the sewer system as city and county officials tried to route effluent around an 11-foot-wide line that had ruptured, washing away dirt some 45 to 55 feet underground on 15 Mile Road here. The unacceptable alternative would have been backups into residents' basements, officials said.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is aware of the dumping, which had been expected to end sometime Monday night after the peak of the precipitation, said Brian Baker, chief deputy for Macomb County Public Works' commissioner-elect. Tuesday's high was expected to be just above freezing with no rain forecast for the next five days.

The area has had reports of sewage backing up into basements though those appear to be unrelated to the bypass efforts because the homes are not on the same line, Baker said.

Audible pops, visible cracks signal Mich. sinkhole is expanding

The sinkhole, most of which is not visible, is estimated to be 100 feet wide and 250 feet long. Residents of 22 homes along Eberlein Drive were forced to evacuate Christmas Eve when the sinkhole opened up at the entrance to their street in this Detroit suburb of about 15,000.

“The No. 1 objective of this project was basically to make sure that with the collapse occurring we don’t have any significant basement backups,” said Scott Lockwood, executive vice president of Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick civil engineers. The Shelby Township, Mich., firm has been brought on to help stabilize the situation.

At least one home, at the corner of 15 Mile Road and Eberlein, is expected to be a total loss, and reconstruction of 15 Mile Road could take months to complete. Damage from the same sewer line created a sinkhole in August 2004 that closed nearly a mile of 15 Mile Road, including its intersection with Eberlein, and took 10 months to repair.

Follow Emma Ockerman on Twitter: @EOckerman

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