Stories about water quality in Flint have nabbed national headlines, but local water quality is a hot topic too after an Independence Township resident found her well water contaminated with petroleum.
Independence Township Supervisor Pat Kittle said residents on private wells are not protected by the same water treatment system the township’s 14 wells are.
‘Anyone on a private well should get their water tested for contaminants,? Kittle said.
Different types of water quality tests are available at Oakland County. One kit tests for bacteria such as coliform and e-coli. Another tests for different chemicals in a water sample.Water kits can test both surface and drinking water.
Test kits are available at the Oakland County Health Department for $5 and $6, which includes the kit and testing.
Those kits do not test for everything, like the petroleum contaminants. In Independence Township, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality confirmed 16 leaks from underground storage tanks.
Gas stations are not the only problem. Sites in the area were polluted years ago.
Kittle ordered the township’s wells tested for petroleum and many other contaminants, which all passed the test, according to DPW Director Dave McKee.
The Independence Township Fire Department is working on more gas station oversight, Kittle said.
County Commissioner Tom Middleton, R-Clarkston, said water resources commissioners have a budget of $5.7 million.
The Oakland County Resources Water Commission oversees the water and storm water system in the county.
Water and sewage fees, paid by anyone on the system, also contribute to revenues.
In Oakland County ‘enterprise funds” are the largest single expense and represents half the WRC budget. Enterprise fund expenditures pay for payroll, contracted services, materials and water and sewer services purchased from the City of Detroit.
Maintenance and construction of the system is also a major expense to taxpayers.
Water infrastructure systems protect a community’s drinking water, but lakes, rivers and streams suffer their own forms of water pollution.
Springfield Township has polluted sites listed on a national priorities list after years of chemical waste was dumped by large corporations.
Three sites on the EPA’s National Priorities Superfund list, deemed among the most toxic sites in America, are near the headwaters of several Michigan rivers including Flint, Clinton, Shiawassee, and Huron.
The cemetery dump site, near White Lake and Andersonville roads, was removed in 1995, and deleted from the list.
In Rose Township, an estimated 5,000 55-gallon drums of toxic waste and chemicals were dumped and buried at an 100-acre property decades ago. The site remains listed.
In the Springfield Township dump, over 1,000 drums of toxic waste was dumped years ago on Shinder Road, which was renamed to Woodtrail Drive.
There are 25 residences located within a one-mile radius of the site with the nearest being about 800 feet from the site.
Those sites, and work completed there, are still being investigated.
In Independence Township, one site of concern is the old Powell dump near Snowapple Drive and Clarkston Road. The site has no priority and is only listed on Oakland County maps.
“It was located around the neighborhood and stretched over what is now 1-75,” Kittle said. “Several residents have raised concerns about the old dump off Clarkston Road.”
The dump was abandoned decades ago and a neighborhood was built.
“Residents have mentioned it after things have popped up out of the ground,” Kittle said.
As such issues come to light, the supervisor said the township is always willing to address citizen concerns.
The ways hazardous waste is handled has progressed over the years, but other types of pollution are a big challenge, said local resident Tom Stone.
“We really have an 18th century way of dealing with storm water,? Stone said.
According to a Independence Water Quality report, storm water runoff is the largest source of pollution to the Clinton River Watershed, which includes 1,000 miles of streams and an 80-mile main branch of the Clinton River, which eventually flows into Lake St. Clair.
Middleton doesn’t agree the system is 18th century, but pointed out solutions to fix such issues are expensive.
Oakland County stormwater is treated in some areas, but in Independence Township it is not, he said.
‘We tell people not to dump chemicals that could get into storm drains, but it still happens,” the commissioner said.
Stone and Middleton agree untreated stormwater is among many issues harming water quality.Overflowing sewage systems are a problem, too.
‘Especially during big storm events,? Middleton said.
Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) estimates aging and a lack of sewer infrastructure will cost billions to fix by 2030.
Stone noted how important water is to all life, yet water quality continues to disintegrate.
What kind of systems should we install and who will oversee it, Middleton asked.
When asked about implementing more ‘green” solutions, Middleton said communities are often being asked to do more with less.
North Oakland Wild Ones, a group which educates and promotes the benefit of Michigan native plants, started a Rain Garden in Depot Park. The native plants will reduce or eliminate the salt and other debris which flow through the area into the Clinton River nearby.
In addition to providing a greener solution for the area, the garden provides food and habitat for bees, wasps, butterflies, hummingbird, moths and other insects in summer and fall.