City's Raw Sewage Leaked, News of It Didn't

[XLFD]

The public's health was put in danger last week by the City of Ludington's inability to get the word out and actually communicate with the community after a wastewater sewer main was ruptured.  The incredible lack of transparency and concern for the public health and safety displayed by the City of Ludington (COL) in this instance should be laid squarely on the shoulders of the freshman City Manager Kaitlyn Aldritch (standing in picture below) who failed to own up to and get ahead of the issue.  

April 7th, 2025, was a typical Michigan spring day, starting off cold and drizzly, clearing up shortly after dawn.  Reportedly, private construction contractors were digging in the Sixth Street area in the Fourth Ward at around 10 AM when they struck a wastewater main.  This created a leak that spilled out an indeterminate amount of water until it was finally fixed at 10:30 PM, over a half day later.  A decision was made early on to divert the untreated, raw sewage through a storm drainpipe which unloads into Pere Marquette (PM) Lake.

By the end of that Monday, raw sewage had flowed into PM Lake for over twelve hours because of that diversion made by the City of Ludington.  Wastewater Plant Supervisor Chris Cossette would allege that the City immediately contacted District Health Department #10 (DHD#10) and EGLE about the leak.  With PM Lake compromised beginning in the late morning, the public was left blissfully unaware about anything for over 24 hours.  

For even though it appears that the City was not at fault for creating the leak of raw sewage, they failed to do their own leaking of this water corruption of the PM Lake and Ludington's harbor to the public in a timely and transparent manner.  Consider the only notification placed on the City's social media and official web pages that day and the next was one notification regarding yard waste:

"Let's keep things tidy" they remind Ludington citizens as they are about six hours into defiling PM Lake with untreated sewage without the public knowing about it.  The big secret would continue through the next day; however, in the afternoon of Tuesday April 8th, DHD#10 finally issued a hint at what may have happened with an announcement that says the lake is befouled:

 

We have found through our dealings with them during the COVID hoax, past sewer ruptures, and beyond that DHD#10 aren't big on transparency themselves, and they prove it with that post, the press releases that followed, and their answer to a resident who knew of the sewer pipe rupture:

Frankly, raw, untreated sewage is different than runoff, and the oblique answer illustrates why one should look at this agency as conflicted in their duty to the public which appears to be less than their duty to run cover for a fellow public agency.  DHD#10's warning was repeated in many local media outlets without the cause of the e coli contamination ever mentioned, including the Mason County Press, the Manistee News Advocate, TV 9&10, WZZM TV, and several others.  

When the leak was actually 'admitted' to on Wednesday April 9th, it was in a poorly titled piece in the local paper of record called Water Main Crisis Averted.  This title choice seems to be an editorial decision by the newspaper to cloud the water, as reporter Marco Iafrate plainly indicates in the article that there was a sewer main, not a water main, that ruptured, and that there was indeed a crisis that happened, as seen by the DHD#10 advisory for Ludington's biggest waterway as referenced in the article. 

Remarkably, this would be the only source that would have WWTP Supervisor Cossette giving some basics behind this leak of raw sewage over the better course of a day.  City Manager Aldrich has said nothing and allowed nothing to be posted on city websites and social media in a clear dereliction of the duties of her position, amongst the highest of those is to protect the public health and safety.  We are still in the dark to the extent of the leakage and who made the ultimate decision to divert the untreated wastewater into pristine PM Lake.  

This is exactly why the lack of transparency City leaders have displayed over the course of the last two years is important to call out and fight against. The safety and health of you and those that you care about are at stake.  If it's not the LPD charging innocent and productive citizens with fake crimes, if it's not them assigning illegal fees to simple FOIA requests, if it's not them using your money for their own private gain, it's crap like this that should get you motivated to clear the water. 

[Willy]

Thanks again X for revealing the truth regarding how callous the CIty leaders treat the safety and health concerns of Ludington. These people cannot be trusted to oversee the safety and well being of any community. But what can be expected from politicians who continue to ignore the needs and concerns of the citizens they are supposed to represent. We could call them stupid or lazy or even incompetent but we know they are just plain corrupt.

[XLFD]

We're still waiting on a FOIA response from the City in regard to this incident and aftermath, in the meantime, I've learned of other pollutants being introduced into PM Lake regularly for years that few people know about, and those who do-- are reluctant to make it public.  We hope to report on this soon.