DETROIT (WXYZ) — Residents in Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood are raising concerns about a new Great Lakes Water Authority project being built in their residential area.
Work is already underway to reroute underground utilities for a new pump station on Freud Street, though the project itself still needs city council approval. Many residents say they were caught off guard by the construction.
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LeJuan Council is the founder of the Detroit Area Disaster Recovery Group, a nonprofit located on the same street. She started the organization in response to massive flooding that hit Jefferson-Chalmers in 2021 — an event still fresh in the minds of many community members.
"Our concern is for sure the 2021 flooding event and how these infrastructure plans improve our chance, so we don't have to go through it again, but it's seeming like the two topics are not correlating," Council said.
While this new project doesn't add more storm water capacity, GLWA officials say it's crucial to their system, particularly to the Freud Pump Station located just a few hundred feet from the new project site.
"Freud pump station is one of our more critical pump stations. It's a major pump station that provide storm water protection," said Navid Mehram, CEO of Wastewater Operations at GLWA.
Mehram explained that the new station will be used to divert flow and isolate the existing station, allowing crews to enter the sewers for repairs and maintenance. The current station was built in 1955 and pumps 2 billion gallons per day.
"For us to be able to appropriately do the maintenance necessary to ensure the reliability of those pump stations, we have to make sure we can do the appropriate maintenance on them," Mehram said.
GLWA is now holding community meetings and says they've shortened the building height by 8 feet based on feedback. However, residents still have frustrations and unanswered questions more than four years after the major flooding event.
"Of course we want to see infrastructure, of course we want to see improvement — it makes us feel some solace. But if it's not going to have a direct tie into 2021 or our regular sewer backups, then what is it all for?" Council said.
GLWA officials say they still need the property rezoned and will need approval by city council. They don't expect the new station to be operational for at least a few years.
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