Shoreline sludge along Lake St. Clair could cost $10k per house to clean up

Officials saw the sludge isn’t raw sewage

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – Officials said a substance that washed up on the shore of Lake St. Clair isn’t sewage, but it still won’t be cheap to clean up.

READ: Substance that washed up on Lake St. Clair shore isn’t health hazard, officials say

Paxton Mendelsohn knew there was a risk buying a home on the water, but the sludge that washed up onto the Lake St. Clair shoreline wasn’t something he ever expected.

For awhile, residents were concerned it could have been raw sewage after nearly one billion gallons of it had to be released into the lake during heavy rain in early January. The county did testing though and said it’s not raw sewage.

Now, the concern is how much it’ll cost to clean it up. A construction strategy firm estimates it could cost around $10,000 per home. A lot of the cost is because of specialty equipment, like vacuum trucks.

The estimate will vary by home and depends on how much there is to clean up and how easy it is to access the site.

Click here to read more about environmental issues in Metro Detroit


About the Authors

Nick joined the Local 4 team in February of 2015. Prior to that he spent 6 years in Sacramento covering a long list of big stories including wildfires and earthquakes. Raised in Sterling Heights, he is no stranger to the deep history and pride Detroit has to offer.

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.

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