Yuck! Does this ever happen? Yes it does! More often than anyone would like, but not as much of a threat as one might think.
State law sets forth rigid standards to follow in the unfortunate event of a discharge of untreated or partially treated waste. If (and, unfortunately, when) it happens, the person responsible for the system shall immediately notify the DEQ by telephone, along with local health departments and newspapers in the town where the discharge happens and all towns downriver. We also test the waters downstream immediately after the discharge event to measure possible public health risks.
This happens very rarely in Grand Haven. We have been fixing up leaky and cross connected sewers for over forty years and are in fairly good shape. Other urban centers, such as Grand Rapids, have regular discharge when we get big rain storms. We get notices every month, and the routine is numbing; we have grown complacent about the events themselves.
Consider this - when Grand Rapids has a discharge, the e coli counts are around 200 colonies per 100 ml in the effluent. Downriver where they sample, the counts are in excess of 300 colonies per 100 ml. The water in the river is more contaminated than the combined sewer overflow being introduced during a rainstorm!
Also consider this - Ottawa County Health Department reported at a water quality summit held this fall that only 1% of the beach closures on Lake Michigan are linked to point source contamination (like the overflows from Grand Rapids).
Citizens of lake shore communities point fingers at Grand Rapids, but the source of our water quality problems are not coming from overflows from our friends in GR. Grand Rapids needs to continue fixing sewer overflow sources, but we need to broaden our perspective if we want to reduce pollutants to Lake Michigan.
