WDET
YAN
Nargis Rahman
The City of Dearborn is receiving federal funds to improve its sewer system. FEMA awarded $8.1 million for the upgrades.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud says the project is installing a series of flapgates for flood mitigation efforts.
“Rather than installing a backflow and individual homes, the flap gate is a backflow for a whole neighborhood, and so this will actually help us prevent flooding to a greater degree for about 3,000 homes in a neighborhood in Dearborn,” he says.
The upgrades will be added betweenChase Road and Greenfield Avenue. About 6,200 feet of storm sewers will be added.
Hammoud says the goal is to increase the capacity of stormwater management.
“We can handle around three inches of rain every 24 hours of our storm event, and our goal is to try to increase that capacity by 50% increasing that capacity closer to four and a half inches, which will help alleviate the majority of flooding based on the storms that we’re having now,” he says.
But Hammoud says in 2021 there was 7 inches of rain.
He says it would take about $700 million in infrastructure investments in the next 15 to 20 years to meet that capacity.
This work is part of the second phase of a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The city has installed bioswales and rain gardens, swapped out grass easements to help absorb gallons of water and clearing out sediment and debris from the Colson Palmer line.
He says the city is looking for additional funding for more stormwater mitigation efforts.
This project is expected to be completed by next year.
