Oakland County, Michigan, is teaming up with local municipalities to educate residents about stormwater.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, they were at Linden Park in Birmingham. Community members listened as an expert explained how certain storage tunnels work to protect local waterways.<\/p>\n
“We have now got a nine-and-a-half-million-gallon underground tank, actually about 5 feet below me, that will hold on to all of that water until the storm subsides, and then it’ll finish its trip down to Detroit,” Alyssa Taube, community engagement specialist, said.<\/p>\n
Linden Park is home to the Birmingham Retention Treatment Basin.<\/p>\n
“In the past 30 years or so, we’ve seen much more heavy weather, much more large storms come through here, so the systems weren’t built for that big a storm, and that way they can’t take it as much. So, as we replace this older infrastructure, which can be 50, 100 years old, we’re replacing it with bigger infrastructure,” Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resources commissioner, said.<\/p>\n
A building in Birmingham is where stormwater goes during heavy rainfall events, like the severe weather in April<\/a> that caused widespread flooding in parts of Metro Detroit.<\/p>\n “It comes to a facility like this where it goes through screenings. That means anything bigger than a half an inch is screened out, so it can’t get into the system. Once it’s in the system, anything that floats goes to the top and skimmed. Anything that sinks goes to the bottom, and it’s cleaned out after the storm,” Nash said.<\/p>\n The water is treated, then returned to systems like the River Rouge.<\/p>\n The nonprofit organization Friends of the Rouge was on hand to educate the public about how waterways are connected and led a bug hunt to show how insects relate to water quality.<\/p>\n “You might not think that when you don’t pick up after your pet or you throw a piece of garbage that it’s going to end up in the Rouge River, however far away that might be. It all does. That’s what being in a watershed is,” Taube said.<\/p>\n Organizers say the more people build and grow communities, the more they need to invest in stormwater systems for the future.<\/p>\n The deadline to apply for federal assistance<\/a> for damage caused by the severe weather in April is on Monday.<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n