LANSING, Mich. — Senator Ray Basham (D-Taylor) today announced that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has awarded $192,315 in funding under the Clean Michigan Initiative (CMI) Clean Water Fund to the Wayne County Department of the Environment to improve the quality of the area’s water resources by working to stop illegal sewer discharges into Ecorse Creek and its tributaries.

“These funds will help fund further work to reduce the amount of sewage reaching Ecorse Creek,” said Basham. “This will help make our water cleaner and safer by reducing the nutrients and germs that are found in Ecorse Creek as a result of the illegal sewage discharges.”

Previous research performed by the Department of Environmental Quality and the Wayne County Department of the Environment demonstrated a large number of illegal sewage discharges to Ecorse Creek and its tributaries. Due to the long urban history of the area, some individual sewage systems empty straight into our surface waters such as Ecorse Creek, often unknowingly to the current owner. This grant will continue the Wayne County Department of the Environment’s work to find these discharges and update the infrastructure to stop them from polluting our waterways.

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