The Great Lakes Water Authority operates and maintains nine individual combined sewer overflow pollution prevention facilities located within the original combined sewer service area. These facilities were planned and constructed in the late 1990's through the early 2000's to contain and treat wet-weather wastewater flows which originated in the legacy combined sewer areas of the Detroit metro area. The City of Detroit was originally developed and as water and sewer services grew within the existing municipal boundary of the City, the sanitary sewer and stormwater sewers were built as a
combined sewer system. Combined sewer systems were designed to convey both dry weather sanitary waste, and during wet weather events, carry the
runoff generated from the surrounding homes, business, and impervious land uses. During wet weather, these historic outfalls would discharge raw sewage directly into the downstream receiving water bodies, such as the Rouge River and Detroit River. The Clean Water Act required the City of Detroit to address these raw sewage outfalls by constructing the CSO pollution control facilities to prevent untreated sewage from entering the local waterways.
Intermediate Sewage Pump Stations { "type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [ { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "7 Mile CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.27246189117433, 42.4316371415533 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Puritan-Fenkell CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.27193617820741, 42.399336077177814 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Hubbell-Southfield CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.20609331130983, 42.30723676617776 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Baby Creek CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.1410175561905, 42.307946897120395 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Oakwood CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.14340472221376, 42.28285735954674 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "St. Aubin CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.02267849445344, 42.33376007219358 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Leib CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -83.0163323879242, 42.35412984920747 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "title": "Belle Isle CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205" }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -82.99756765365602, 42.338827856751436 ] } }, { "type": "Feature", "properties": {"title": "Conner Creek CSO Facility", "marker-color": "#AA1205"}, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ -82.95798897743227, 42.36234924163794 ] } } ] }
Water Resource Recovery/ Wastewater Pollution Control { "type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [ { "type": "Feature", "properties": {"stroke": "#5581A9", "stroke-width": 5,}, "geometry": { "type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [ [ [ -83.13410282135011, 42.28429403804948 ], [ -83.13247203826906, 42.286389466186584 ], [ -83.12294483184816, 42.29000867789902 ], [ -83.12285900115968, 42.28934199662877 ], [ -83.12182903289796, 42.28931024972564 ], [ -83.12170028686525, 42.29048487448625 ], [ -83.12067031860352, 42.29083408302887 ], [ -83.1183958053589, 42.29026264986023 ], [ -83.12028408050539, 42.28927850280647 ], [ -83.12260150909425, 42.28629422096508 ], [ -83.12783718109132, 42.281944535743335 ], [ -83.13410282135011, 42.28429403804948 ] ] ] } } ] } All of the wastewater collected from the Great Lakes Water Authority sewer service area is treated at one facility, the GLWA Water Resource Recovery Facility. The Water Resource Recovery Facility is located at 9300 W. Jefferson Avenue, and is the second largest single-site wastewater treatment facility in North America. The initial phase of the plant was completed in 1940, at a cost of $10 million. Today the facility is rated for a maximum wastewater treatment capacity of 1890 million gallons/day of wet-weather sewage treatment. The Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) is classified as a wet-weather wastewater treatment facility, as it sees sewage flows fluctuate depending on rainfall depth over the sewer collection area. When the City of Detroit was originally sewered for wastewater collection, the system was designed to collect
stormwater runoff in addition to household and industrial sanitary wastewater. Two interceptors convey raw sewage to the Water Resource Recovery Facility. The Detroit River Interceptor (DRI) follows the Detroit River riverbank, and collects sewage from the eastern sewer service area, ultimately following Jefferson Boulevard and arriving at Pump Station No. 1 from the south. The Oakwood Interceptor conveys raw sewage from the western service area which comprises Dearborn and the western suburbs. The Oakwood Interceptor arrives at the WRRF from the north. Each interceptor was originally designed to ultimately land at Pump Station No. 1 when the WRRF was placed in service in 1940. The original wastewater treatment works were further upgraded in 1953 and 1957, in which additional primary clarification was added to the process. Polymer and ferric chloride feed systems were added to the plant in 1970, including a new chlorine feed system. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (
Clean Water Act) of 1972 drove the need add secondary treatment capacity to the facility, which included the construction of aeration tanks, secondary clarifiers, cryogenic oxygen plants and additional biosolids handling facilities at the plant. The WRRF includes two medium-lift pump
stations, fourteen primary clarifiers (circular and rectangular), four secondary aeration basins, thirty secondary
clarifiers, twenty-two sludge dewatering
belt filter presses, eight multiple-hearth furnace
incinerators, and a chlorination/dechlorination facility for managing the
disinfection and subsequent residual chlorine removal of the final treated effluent. The WRRF relies on a liquid oxygen generation system to produce the oxygen necessary for the activated sludge aeration process used to manage the biological nutrient removal process. == Incidents ==