49 Mil Gallons of Treated Sewage Discharged into Saginaw River

Three of the city's retention treatment basins have discharged more than 49 million gallons of treated wastewater into the Saginaw River since Thursday, March 24.

Saginaw operates seven "retention treatment basins" along the river.

They are activated during heavy rains, acting like miniature water treatment facilities and cleaning overflow wastewater that cannot be handled by the main wastewater treatment facility on Veterans Memorial Parkway.

During normal weather conditions, Saginaw routes all water from sanitary, storm and industrial sewers to its wastewater treatment facility on Veterans Memorial Parkway. On an average day, the plant discharges about 15 million gallons of treated water into the river.

But sometimes the volume of water flowing into the city's combined sewer system — which includes both storm and sanitary sewers — exceeds the main plant's capacity. At those times, the retention treatment basins are activated.

The basins are able to treat wastewater more quickly, but leave out some of the steps in the process, performing only primary treatment and chlorine disinfection before discharging the water into the river.

According to the city's report to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, last week's discharge was completed in compliance with all applicable discharge permits, laws and rules. 

Retention treatment basins at Emerson, 14th and Weiss all began discharging water on Thursday afternoon. The discharges had all concluded by Saturday morning.

Testing for E. Coli content in the water revealed levels of 76 parts per 100 ml at Wickes Park and 58 parts per 100 ml south of the Water Treatment Plant. Both levels fall below the limits set for Saginaw's system.

Source: MichiganLive

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