Power Outages Caused Delays in Grosse Pointe Farms Sewage Pumps

Repeated, brief power outages from DTE caused backups in the sewage pump station yesterday during the spurts of heavy rainfall. Many residents have talked about flooded basements, and emergency water removal/restoration trucks from numerous companies were parked throughout the Farms on Wednesday.

Farms Water Superintendent Scott Homminga said the system became overwhelmed after losing power briefly five different times. Both the sewage pump station and the water plant are supplied with power with two different, independent main power lines and each has a backup generator, Homminga said. 

Having two main power lines is a backup system in itself, he said, explaining that if power is lost to one, the other takes over. The generator is employed when both lines are down, which hasn't happened in years, he said. 

Yesterday the power stopped for a minute or so at a time. That may not seem like a long time, but to the pumping systems, that's enough to wreak havoc, Homminga said. When the system is shut down suddenly, it cannot be turned back on all at once or the system would be overloaded, he said. 

Instead, the pumps are thrown onto a timer that allows for them to be gradually added back into the system, he said. 

The near record-breaking amount of rain also prompted two oversized pumps to kick into operation, which are only used when high amounts of water need to be cleared and generally they run for six minutes before areas are drained, he said. 

Both ran for more than an hour Wednesday, helping clear more than 216 million gallons of storm water, Homminga said. That is more water than the Farms water plant supplies daily to both the Farms and the , he said, and it was within a few hours. 

The systems are in full operation today, he said, noting that all three backups to go out is extremely rare. 

According to the National Weather Service the area will be hit with more rain and thunderstorms today. The flood watch issued Wednesday continues. The updated prediction says areas north of the Detroit metro area are likely to be the hardest hit, including Midland and Saginaw.