Erb Co-Convenes Discussion of New Regional Integrated Water Management Plan

The Great Lakes Water Authority’s (GLWA) 40-year Wastewater Master Plan is a significant step towards a new, regional, cooperative approach to improve water quality. Of special interest to Erb is the plan’s recommendations on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and other strategies to manage Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).

Erb co-convened a joint virtual meeting of its Detroit GSI Workgroup with the Detroit Green Task Force Water Subcommittee on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 to learn more about the plan.

Sherri Gee, Systems Planning Manager with the Great Lakes Water Authority provided an in-depth overview of the plan, and Lisa Wallick, Manager of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department’s Stormwater Management Group with the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, described DWSD’s GSI capital projects that align with the plan.

A 57 minute recording of the presentations can be downloaded here.

The Erb Detroit GSI Workgroup brings together those that are working to implement green stormwater infrastructure at a citywide scale with the ultimate goal of a robust coordinated citywide program that improves water quality, builds resiliency and, enhances quality of life. It convenes on an as-needed basis. To date, it has helped incubate grants for a GLRI Shoreline Cities project in Detroit, the Detroit Stormwater Hub and the Land + Waterworks Coalition.

The Green Task Force Water Committee serves as an advisory group to the Detroit City Council Green Task Force; guided by the Detroit Water Agenda which contains objectives related to water resource conservation and reuse, stormwater and wastewater management, water pollution prevention and community outreach/education and the promotion of best practices and policy(s).  The Detroit Water Agenda (DWA) can be found here: https://greeningmichigan.com/_michigan/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Detroit-Water-Agenda-2012-2.pdf