Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund are disclosing information on sewage overflows not reported by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
The environmental groups released a report Tuesday claiming the DEQ’s Web site fails to report 29 billion gallons of sewage overflows in the state.
By law, the size of the overflow and all surrounding waters near it are required to be reported to the DEQ and local health departments.
The law also requires the DEQ to post the information on its Web site.
Bethany Renfer, program coordinator for Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund, said the state total for sewage overflows is far more than what has been reported and communication between the health departments and the DEQ needs to improve.
“We (filed Freedom of Information Act requests) with county environmental health departments and compared that to what is on the DEQ Web site,” she said.
But Renfer said not all of the FOIAs were returned from the county departments.
“It was very close to 52 billion gallons and we pulled the information from the DEQ Web site and got only 23 billion,” she said. “Some of the numbers we are seeing are larger than what they have been in the past,” she said.
Ken Silfven, a DEQ spokesman, said the report by Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund began six or seven months before the statute went into effect.
“They are accounting additional months that we don’t have,” he said. “We have been very aggressive at tackling this problem.”
Silfven said he feels the DEQ is in synch with the health departments and is trying to report all sewage overflows.But he said there are still overflows that don’t get reported to either agency.
“We are trying to avoid that, historically that has been the case, this is a huge problem that has been ignored for years,” he said.
Silfven also said the report misrepresented an overflow in Wayne County, which was much more than the 6.7 billion gallons stated.
“This isn’t a report, there is no real analysis,” he said. “I wish they were more concerned about accuracy as they are the environment.”
But Cyndi Roper, Michigan director for Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund, said the DEQ doesn’t communicate with the county health departments.
“There are numerous times when the county health department knew about the events, but the DEQ didn’t,” she said.
Roper said that she was told by the health departments that the DEQ is required to report the overflows and the DEQ told them the health departments are supposed to.
State Sen. Ken Sikkema, R-Grandville, helped introduce the legislation that requires the DEQ to update its Web site.
Brendan Ringlever, the senator’s legislative director, said he had not seen the report but doubts its validity.
“If there is a miscommunication between the DEQ and the county health departments, then that needs to be addressed,” he said. “I am not aware of any, most Michigan laws require that if there is a sewage overflow that they report it to the DEQ and the county health department.”
