City Receives Green Light for Multiyear Sewer and Water Project

After years of planning, dozens of meetings with residents and city officials, and countless drafts, work is set to begin on the city’s master plan to repair and rehabilitate Birmingham’s aging sewers and water mains.

Specifically, three Birmingham neighborhoods — Quarton Lake Estates, Birmingham Villas and East Maple Gardens — will be thrown into an eight-year construction project with costs to homeowners potentially in the thousands.  Inspections are slated to begin this year, and the last bit of work is expected to wrap up in 2018.

The goal of the project is to eventually replace and abandon the city’s backyard sewers and water mains, an outdated construction practice from the 1920s, when many Birmingham neighborhoods were plotted. In addition, Quarton Lake Estates will see improved drainage with a series of storm sewer replacement projects.

For residents, this means cleaner sewers and updated infrastructure — but it could also mean a hefty bill for many homeowners, more than 150 of whom will be required to pay $2,600-$4,000 for the sewer and water main realignment project during the next 10 years. 

At a public hearing on the project Monday at the Birmingham City Commission meeting, dozens of homeowners from the affected neighborhoods turned out to share their concerns and to pepper City Engineer Paul O’Meara with questions on everything from the projected costs to the plan’s logistics.

George Roberts, who lives on Fairfax Avenue in Quarton Lake Estates, questioned the necessity of the project, especially in the midst of a tough economy.

“I wonder if this is an emergency,” he said. “I wonder if we have to do this now.”

Mayor Gordon Rinschler said the city’s coffers are well-equipped to tackle the project, though he noted that property owners will be responsible for all work completed on private property.

For the homes in Quarton Lake Estates, the project should save them thousands on sewage costs. Since the Oakland County Water Resources Commission (OCWRC) changed the way sewage treatment is billed in 2009, water and sewage bills for two-thirds of the city’s residents have climbed by 65 percent, or $850,000 total annually.

Currently, the OCWRC calculates sewage charges based on all flows — sanitary and stormwater. By improving storm sewers in Quarton Lake Estates, more stormwater can be diverted to the Rouge River, reducing the amount of stormwater in the sewers and saving the city and homeowners a total of $93,000 to $132,000 annually.

The city will also be relining its own sewers, ridding them of damaging roots and other blockages. By offering the same service to homeowners, O’Meara said the city hopes to reduce the frequency with which it cleans the majority of the city’s sewers from every two months to every two years.

For homeowners affected by the backyard sewers and water project, Patch has assembled a comprehensive guide on the project, . This document includes:

• A breakdown of what the city has planned for all three neighborhoods.
• The projected time schedule.
• The projected costs to homeowners.
• A history of how the sewers and water mains came to this point.