Description

Runoff is just as dirty as sewer overflows ... and there's more of it -- It's easy to blame wastewater treatment plants for pollution in Saginaw Bay. After all, every time one overflows, there's a notice in the newspaper: 20 million gallons overflowed from the Bay City plant on Aug. 7 and 8, for instance. But new and ongoing studies suggest that stormwater - or runoff from parking lots, roads, homes and farms - contains just as much E. coli bacteria as combined sewage overflows, from systems that carry stormwater and sanitary waste in Bay City, Essexville and Saginaw. Out in townships like Bangor and Kawkawlin, rain water and snow melt that runs off the landscape flows untreated into drains that empty into the bay. When a sewage plant overflows in the tri-city area, it almost always receives primary treatment and disinfection, which kills at least some disease-causing bacteria. There are 280 drains in Bay County that take water from a 450-square-mile area. That's not counting the rest of the Saginaw Bay watershed, which drains 15 percent of Michigan and covers 22 counties, making it the largest watershed in the state. All the runoff eventually reaches Saginaw Bay.

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