Heavy rain this week could bring new issues for Fraser sinkhole

FRASER, Mich. (WJBK) - The damaged sewage line caused by Fraser's massive sinkholes survived the big game's halftime flushes, but now officials are worried the rain in this week's forecast could force raw sewage into the Clinton River.

A relieved Candice Miller, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner, is happy that a warning to keep bathroom breaks to a minimum during the Super Bowl game half-time resonated with residents of 11 communities impacted by the sinkhole in Fraser.

"Everybody working together, we have not had to discharge any raw sewage into the Clinton River and we are all very, very thankful about that," she said.

But as one situation is resolved, another surfaces.

"We just can't handle heavy rain, of course it's in forecast," Miller said.

Officials say if Mother Nature releases too much rainfall over the next couple of days, they'll have to choose the lesser of two evils.

"We would discharge before we started backing it up in people's basements because there are a lot of people in 11 communities who are at the lower elevations and you're talking about hundreds if not thousands of basements. Now, we are not going to be doing that. We're going to have to discharge into the river, which is a terrible thing to do also," Miller said.

Miller hopes an agreement with the City of Mount Clemens will also help if needed.

"They have a little bit of capacity within their pipes and their system that they're going to be able to take some of our wet weather flow," she said.

But Miller believes there is some relief on the way. She says they are racing against the clock to build a temporary bypass, which will take another 3-4 weeks to complete.

"We are going to be able to take the flow, divert the flow out of the interceptor into the bypass and at that point we can all take a little bit of a breath while we then fix the interceptor," she said.

Miller says there is no way to sugarcoat this situation and that's why she's still asking people to be on alert.

"We are asking everybody to continue to restrict their water usage, it really is very impactful," she said.