According to an August press release from the Macomb County Public Works Office, overflows from the basin and raw sewage from the Dequindre Interceptor discharge into the Red Run at the outfall of the basin at Dequindre Road north of 13 Mile Road, which borders the two counties. It then is discharged into the Clinton River, which flows into Lake St. Clair.
By: Brian Wells | Warren Weekly | Published January 9, 2026
WARREN — Warren officials are asking the state to step in after sewage overflows from Oakland County continue to send lightly treated wastewater through the city and into the Clinton River.
At the City Council’s Dec. 16 meeting, council members voted to adopt a resolution asking the state to address the need to eliminate combined sewer overflows into Warren and Macomb County from the George W. Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin in Oakland County.
“Whereas, for decades, the George W. Kuhn Drainage District, consisting of 14 communities in southeast Oakland County, has repeatedly allowed combined sewer overflows, which have discharged enormous quantities of lightly treated sewage, including particulate matter, into the Red Run Drain through Macomb County,” the resolution states.
A combined sewer overflow occurs when a mix of untreated sewage and stormwater discharges directly into rivers, lakes or oceans as the sewer system becomes overwhelmed during heavy rains.
According to an August press release from the Macomb County Public Works Office, overflows from the basin and raw sewage from the Dequindre Interceptor discharge into the Red Run at the outfall of the basin at Dequindre Road north of 13 Mile Road, which borders the two counties. It then is discharged into the Clinton River, which flows into Lake St. Clair.
The item was added to the Warren City Council’s Dec. 16 agenda by Councilman Gary Boike.
“The resolution was prepared to show our alliance to other Macomb County communities, that we’re not going to sit back and let Oakland County dump stormwater when it reaches a certain level,” he said.
In recent years, the city of Warren has taken steps to ensure the city’s drinking water remains safe despite the discharges from Oakland County. Those steps include the construction of a new detention basin on Stephens Road, north of Nine Mile Road and east of Schoenherr Road. In September, the city awarded a $110.3 million bid for a dewatering and incineration improvement project.
The city also instituted a cross-connection control program aiming to protect the city’s public water distribution system by eliminating potential sources of contamination.
The city of Warren operates its own Waste Water Treatment Plant near 14 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue.
While initially it wasn’t a Macomb County problem, Boike said it became one due to the damage caused by the discharges from Oakland County.
The resolution asks the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to regulate the permits that allows Oakland County to discharge “exorbitant amounts of water through the drain,” Boike said.
In addition to denying the permits to Oakland County, the resolution asks that funds from state grants that would have been given to Oakland County be redirected toward financing improvements to eliminate combined sewer overflows, including making improvements along the Red Run in Warren.
“We’re asking our state to look at us and recognize us, that we could use some of the money, too, so that we could make sure that the drain operates properly and were not getting contaminants coming down through our city,” Boike said.
The City Council voted unanimously to accept the resolution, making Warren the last city in the county to enact such a resolution, Boike said.
Water being discharged from Oakland County into Macomb County has drawn repeated scrutiny from Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller.
In April 2025, Miller sent a letter to EGLE in an attempt to bring attention to the issue while they were reviewing the drain’s permit renewal. However, in August, the permit was renewed.
New regulations applied to the basin through the permit fail to improve water quality and reduce the frequency and duration of CSO’s, Miller said.
“The permit does not mandate (the George W. Kuhn basin) make any improvements within required or meaningful timelines. Additionally, the permit now incredibly gives (the George W. Kuhn basin) more time than originally proposed to only study, but not correct their problems,” Miller said in a statement in August.
During one discharge in April that occurred following intense storms, 820 million gallons of untreated combined sewer overflow and 1.2 million gallons of sanitary sewer overflow were released.
Miller said she appreciates Warren’s efforts to help stop the discharge of treated and untreated sewage into the Red Run.
“Warren has spent over $90 million to stop their discharges into the Red Run Drain, Macomb County has spent over $100 million to stop our discharges into Lake St. Clair, and yet Oakland County can’t do anything to stop their discharges,” she said. “If they really cared about a regional approach to improving water quality, they could certainly do something.”