08-27-2005, 06:12 AM
The Oakland County Drain Commissioner's Office will receive $246,528 of a total $6 million in state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) grants through Michigan's Clean Michigan Initiative.
According to Oakland County Environmental Planner Ron Fadoir, the grant will be spent on finding and removing polluted runoff from roadways and flowing drain outfalls, and leaky sewers all across the county.
"(The grant takes effect) in September and will last two years through October 2007 to pay for our staff to be out there testing and looking for pollution," he said.
The goal, according to Fadoir, is to prevent illicit discharges into the Clinton River headwaters.
Other Michigan communities were also awarded grant money to identify and eliminate illicit connections to storm sewers.
Illicit connections include businesses and homes with toilets, sinks, or drains connected to storm sewers, allowing sewage to flow directly into the storm sewers without treatment. Identifying such illegal connections usually involves sampling at storm sewer outfalls and testing individual toilets, sinks, and neighborhood drains.
Receiving a grant was a bonus, according to Fadoir.
"We're required to do this under state law," he said. "This gives us some money to do it."
According to Fadoir, the drain office applied for the grant a year ago, and it's the second grant awarded by the DEQ for the purpose of cleaning up polluted waterways. The first was awarded last fall.
Drain office workers spent the past summer with chemical kits sampling county outfalls.
With this new grant, the drain office will also be working in conjunction with the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) in mapping out the county's polluted roadway drainage.
Funding for the project, and the other DEQ grants comes from the Clean Michigan Initiative Clean Water Fund and Clean Michigan Initiative Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Grant Program, both of which are administered by the DEQ's Environmental Science and Services Division.
Fadoir said the drain office will match 25 percent of the grant total from the staff budget to help cover equipment costs.
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According to Oakland County Environmental Planner Ron Fadoir, the grant will be spent on finding and removing polluted runoff from roadways and flowing drain outfalls, and leaky sewers all across the county.
"(The grant takes effect) in September and will last two years through October 2007 to pay for our staff to be out there testing and looking for pollution," he said.
The goal, according to Fadoir, is to prevent illicit discharges into the Clinton River headwaters.
Other Michigan communities were also awarded grant money to identify and eliminate illicit connections to storm sewers.
Illicit connections include businesses and homes with toilets, sinks, or drains connected to storm sewers, allowing sewage to flow directly into the storm sewers without treatment. Identifying such illegal connections usually involves sampling at storm sewer outfalls and testing individual toilets, sinks, and neighborhood drains.
Receiving a grant was a bonus, according to Fadoir.
"We're required to do this under state law," he said. "This gives us some money to do it."
According to Fadoir, the drain office applied for the grant a year ago, and it's the second grant awarded by the DEQ for the purpose of cleaning up polluted waterways. The first was awarded last fall.
Drain office workers spent the past summer with chemical kits sampling county outfalls.
With this new grant, the drain office will also be working in conjunction with the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) in mapping out the county's polluted roadway drainage.
Funding for the project, and the other DEQ grants comes from the Clean Michigan Initiative Clean Water Fund and Clean Michigan Initiative Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Grant Program, both of which are administered by the DEQ's Environmental Science and Services Division.
Fadoir said the drain office will match 25 percent of the grant total from the staff budget to help cover equipment costs.
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