State records: Durand, not Owosso, reported Sept. 3 sewage discharge

The 110,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater that prompted a Sept. 4 discharge advisory came from the City of Durand's wastewater treatment plant and went into the Holly Drain, according to the state's public sewage-discharge database.

The filing in EGLE's MiEnviro discharge system lists the event start as Sept. 3, 2026, the volume as 0.11 million gallons true to 110,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater, and the receiving water as the Holly Drain, a county drain in the Durand area. In the city's own description on the report, heavy rainfall overwhelmed the treatment plant, causing it to flow into the Holly Drain. That report, submission reference HQR-AS09-F7VY5, is marked Completed. A second filing for the same Sept. 3 event, reference HQR-9WMX-ARKZT, is still listed as In Process and describes heavy rainfall overwhelming both the plant and the collection system.

The volume and the partially treated description match the advisory that prompted our reporting. What they change is the address: the responsible party is Durand.

The Current reported Sept. 17 that Owosso Public Safety had returned this newsroom's Sept. 16 records request about the reported discharge, citing missing requester mailing and contact information under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act. The state database now makes clear why Owosso had nothing on file for the event the request went to the wrong city. The record was public the whole time, in EGLE's database, which is where this desk found it. The Current is refiling records requests with the City of Durand and with EGLE for the full event report.

Owosso does have a 2026 discharge on file, and it is still open with the state. According to the same database, two manholes in the Owosso/Mid-Shiawassee County treatment system released diluted raw sewage into the Shiawassee River on April 4 and 5, 2026, after 1.86 inches of rain fell on saturated ground: an estimated 81,600 gallons from a manhole on the north bank just west of the M-52 bridge, and 53,000 gallons from a manhole on the south bank about 100 feet east of Union Street. Both filings state that the discharge is currently under review by the department, and both note that action details were not provided by municipality.

The database is not short on Shiawassee County history. It lists roughly 175 discharge events in the county going back to 2001. Owosso-system records repeatedly cite inflow and infiltration rainwater and groundwater getting into sewer pipes as the problem in heavy rain, and older records note the system has operated under a state administrative consent order dating to 2005 addressing wet-weather discharges. An administrative consent order is a binding agreement with the state to fix a violation on a schedule.

Several things this desk cannot yet tell you. The record names the Holly Drain as the receiving water and nothing beyond that, so we are not going to say where the drain outlets or what reached it. We do not know whether any downstream advisory was issued or lifted, or what Durand has done at the plant since Sept. 3.

What happens next: The Current has questions pending with the Shiawassee County Health Department and the county drain commissioner, both of which said replies would come after staff return Monday, and is refiling records requests with Durand and EGLE for the complete event report. The second Durand filing for the same event remains In Process in the state system. Source records: EGLE's public CSO/SSO discharge database and the EGLE SSO/CSO program page. Our earlier story: Owosso declines Current records request on reported sewage discharge.