DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit homeowner's concerns about depressions in the alley behind her house underscore a widespread problem with private sewer connections throughout the city.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Olivia Johnson, who lives in the Pingree Park neighborhood on Detroit's east side, has been dealing with several concrete depressions in the alley between the 3800 block of Seneca and Iroquois for more than two and a half years.
"As you can see, the concrete from the alley, you see how that has come up? Because it's continuing to go down while that is coming up," Johnson said.
Johnson shared her story during our Let's Talk stop at Sinbad's Restaurant. She says she informed the city about the problem more than two and a half years ago.
"The water company came out. They put the horse there. As you can see, it's down now," Johnson said.
I reached out to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), which sent out a crew to investigate the situation.
DWSD determined that the concrete caved in behind Johnson's garage because her private sewer line connection to the public sewer main is compromised. There are about 310,000 of these connections in Detroit, and Johnson's is far from the only one failing.
"We see that the clay sewer connections are actually failing, the connections to the public sewer main, and we see pretty consistently that every third one has got a significant defect," DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley explained.
That amounts to more than 100,000 private sewer connections with defects across the city. Fortunately, there is help on the horizon for affected homeowners.
"The good news is the city is allocating $175 million plus another $9 million in what we call the alley sewer repair program that's currently in environmental review. We hope to get started in first quarter of '26," Smalley said.
Johnson says she was never informed that the depression behind her garage was ultimately her responsibility. Smalley says it's standard procedure for crews to leave a notice on the homeowner's door after they investigate such issues.
Residents can report alley sinkholes at https://detroitmi.gov/ImproveDetroit or by calling 313-267-8000.
For more information on the sewer repair program, visit https://detroitmi.gov/departments/housing-and-revitalization-department/hud-programming-and-information/cdbg-disaster-recovery/cdbg-dr-private-sewer-repair-program.
