GLWA Statement: Detroit Storage Partial Land Collapse & Possible Impact on Raw Water Intake(s)

December 6, 2019

The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is committed to ensuring that it provides its member partner communities in southeast Michigan with water of unquestionable quality. The Authority not only meets, but surpasses all standards related to federal and state Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.

GLWA has two raw water intakes in the Detroit River. One is located several miles upstream of the Detroit Storage site, a portion of which last week partially collapsed into the river. Because it is upstream of the site, there is no danger of any potential water quality issues from the collapse. The second intake is several miles downstream of the Detroit Storage site. However, the intake is located on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, and is not in the direct flow stream of the river where the land collapsed. Because of this, GLWA does not believe that there is any danger of this incident impacting water quality.

GLWA is in the process of conducting testing with an independent, third party laboratory for radionuclides and is requesting an expedited turnaround on these results.  The Authority will share these results as soon as they are available. This same testing was conducted in 2014 and no issues were identified.