Logs, railroad ties, tires and other debris created blockage in a Macomb County sewer pipe, causing minor flooding of a road and nearby parking lots.
The Teske Drain was reduced to a trickle, according to a news release by Macomb County Public Works.
Long-time public works personnel at the site said the blockage was one of the worst they’d seen. They pulled the debris out through a manhole. Sediment in the pipe was also vacuumed out.
The flooded areas were along Kelly Road near Groesbeck in Fraser. Employees of some nearby businesses complained they had difficulty getting into parking lots.
Other lengths of the Teske drain were half full of sediment. Crews cleaned out about 600 feet of that part of the pipe.
Flooding of Kelly Road during the summer was compounded by several intense rainstorms. Heavy rainfall has increased with climate change. The decades-old stormwater systems in the region were not designed to handle such heavy rain events.
“It’s hard for any of these old systems to keep up, but the systems we have in place, we’ve got to make sure that they’re taken care of so that the water can flow,” said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller.
