County health dept. in Corunna sends sewage questions to FOIA

A Shiawassee County resident who wants to know whether a reported raw sewage discharge was ever checked, or whether anyone was warned about it, now has to wait on a records request.

The Current emailed the Shiawassee County Health Department a set of questions about a reported sewage discharge. Casey D. Elliott, the department's director of environmental health, replied at 8:05 p.m. on Sept. 17 under the subject line "Sewage Discharge Questions" and pointed The Current to the department's records process instead of answering.

"You can find a FOIA request form on our webpage https://shiawasseechd.net/environmental-health/ for your use at the bottom of the page," Elliott wrote. He added: "I will not be able to process the request until next week as I am out of the office until Monday." Monday is Sept. 21.

That makes the health department the second public body in a week to route the same questions through the records process. The Current reported on Sept. 17 that Owosso Public Safety returned an earlier Freedom of Information Act request without any records, citing a missing mailing address and contact information under Michigan's FOIA.

The department's environmental health division is the county agency that handles sewage and septic matters. Elliott, who signs as Casey D. Elliott, REHS, director of environmental health, addressed only how the questions would be handled. He did not confirm that any discharge occurred, and no primary record obtained by The Current establishes a discharge, its size, its location or what water it reached.

Records held by the state are not filling the gap either. Three Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy web addresses for sewage-overflow reporting returned errors when checked by The Current on Sept. 17. A dead link is not evidence that nothing happened; it means the public route to the record was not working that day.

What happens next: Elliott said he returns to the office Monday, Sept. 21, and will take up the request then. Under Michigan's FOIA, a public body generally has five business days to respond to a written request. The Current is also seeking any overflow notice covering Shiawassee County from EGLE's water resources district office, and will report what the records show — including whether any public advisory was ever issued.