Description and Details

Detroit is invest­ing in a $40 mil­lion ini­tia­tive to imple­ment a trans­for­ma­tive stormwa­ter man­age­ment sys­tem in the Far West neigh­bor­hood near Rouge Park. The project, described by the Detroit Water and Sew­er­age Depart­ment as the largest of its kind, will redi­rect 98 mil­lion gal­lons of rain­wa­ter and snowmelt into two new deten­tion basins and a ren­o­vat­ed sew­er sys­tem. The new waste­water sys­tem will great­ly reduce water vol­umes in Detroit’s com­bined sew­er sys­tem dur­ing heavy rain­fall and pro­vide flood relief for rough­ly 1,200 homes trou­bled by flood­ing in recent years. The expan­sion informed by com­mu­ni­ty feed­back is one of the city’s most promi­nent invest­ments to enhance green infra­struc­ture and improve its overex­tend­ed waste­water management.
The project has been planned through exten­sive study and com­mu­ni­ty coor­di­na­tion since 2016 and is planned to be con­struct­ed in 3 phas­es extend­ing through 2026. Crews broke ground on the South Basin, North Basin, and Sew­er over­haul in July of 2022, and progress to date is report­ed to be on track. When com­plete in three years, the sup­ple­men­tal basins and sew­er sys­tem sit­u­at­ed along Park­land Road are designed to store and effec­tive­ly puri­fy stormwa­ter through nat­ur­al fil­tra­tion before release into the Rouge River.
The stormwa­ter man­age­ment ini­tia­tive plans to encom­pass neigh­bor­hood improve­ments in addi­tion to the basins. First, the planned sew­er ren­o­va­tion will replace lead ser­vice lines, reduc­ing health risks to res­i­dents while also man­ag­ing stormwa­ter with greater effi­cien­cy. Sec­ond­ly, the project plans to dis­con­nect and redi­rect down­spouts from around 400 homes to par­cel-sized waste­water man­age­ment tac­tics, a small but impact­ful mea­sure to reduce excess water in the sew­er sys­tem and great­ly reduce the risk of flood in the com­mu­ni­ty. Last­ly, the stormwa­ter ini­tia­tive promis­es to increase recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents and greater Detroi­ters. The enhance­ments in Rouge Park set the stage for improved park expe­ri­ences through the cre­ation of wet­land park spaces. Plant­ed with native Flo­ra, the new basins plan to wel­come res­i­dents and vis­i­tors to enjoy green­er, invit­ing spaces in their com­mu­ni­ty. As con­struc­tion pro­gress­es, fur­ther com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings are planned to con­tin­ue col­lab­o­ra­tion regard­ing ele­ments such as detailed plant­i­ng selec­tions for the basin areas.
The project is finan­cial­ly backed by the Detroit Water and Sew­er­age Depart­ment (DWSD) and the Oak­land Coun­ty Water Resources Com­mis­sion. Despite the pro­jec­t’s loca­tion in Wayne Coun­ty, the col­lab­o­ra­tive finan­cial effort is a result of neigh­bor­ing Oak­land Coun­ty ben­e­fit­ing from improve­ment to their Ever­green-Farm­ing­ton San­i­tary Drain Drainage Dis­trict. The funds and con­tract for the work have been award­ed to Major Con­tract­ing, a Detroit-based firm rein­forc­ing the city’s com­mit­ment to invest­ment in local busi­ness­es and their economy.
In total, the $40 mil­lion basin con­struc­tion and sew­er ren­o­va­tion is a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort among local author­i­ties, con­trac­tors, and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions. Post-com­ple­tion, the project is expect­ed to bring wide-reach­ing ben­e­fits in waste­water man­age­ment, flood reduc­tion, and pub­lic health and recreation.

Discussion Questions

  • How does the invest­ment in stormwa­ter man­age­ment projects in Detroit’s Far West neigh­bor­hood affect wider exist­ing dis­par­i­ties in infrastructure?
  • What can be learned from this project regard­ing incor­po­rat­ing com­mu­ni­ty feed­back from res­i­dents in his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized areas to reflect diverse per­spec­tives and needs?
  • Can the employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties cre­at­ed by the project with Major Con­tract­ing be expect­ed to sup­port work­force diver­si­ty and the eco­nom­ic empow­er­ment of under­rep­re­sent­ed groups in Detroit?
  • Fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of the stormwa­ter man­age­ment sys­tem, what mea­sures should be tak­en by local author­i­ties to mon­i­tor and assess the long-term impact on envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and qual­i­ty of life improve­ments for com­mu­ni­ties in the area?

References

Offi­cial State­ments & Media/News References:

Far West Detroit Stormwa­ter Improve­ment Project
https://detroitmi.gov/departments/water-and-sewerage-department/dwsd-projects/far-west-detroit-stormwater-improvement-project

Far West Detroit Stormwa­ter Improve­ment Project Con­struc­tion Update
https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2024–01/Far%20West%20Detroit%20Stormwater%20Improvement%20Project%20December%202023%20Update.pdf

Project could stop 48 mil­lion gal­lons of com­bined sewage over­flows into Rouge River
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2021/02/10/oakland-wayne-project-rouge-river-sewage-overflows/6705291002/

Detroit launch­es ‘largest’ ever stormwa­ter project in west neighborhood
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/detroit-launches-largest-ever-stormwater-project-in-west-neighborhood

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