Solution to flooding on Ecorse watershed would cost $265 million

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - The early-May flooding has metro Detroiters frustrated, upset and angry.

Residents around some of the worst hit parts of the region are reminded of similar flooding that submerged the city in 2014. Those neighborhoods include ones that border the Ecorse watershed.

"The anger is there, it becomes so disappointing," said Daniel S. Paletko, mayor of Dearborn Heights, "and we already have had so many of these people impacted by the last flood that received help from FEMA are now in the same situation that they were..."

Paletko said a long-term solution is needed. One is in the works, but it won't be cheap.

A floodwater detention basin would be built along the river which would improve a greenway channel from the city, which is downstream to the Detroit River. However, it won't be cheap.

"...about $265 million dollars and it handles all the downriver," said the mayor.

It's also going to take some time to build - about two to three years. But before that, the Army Corps of Engineers has to approve the project. 

The reminder of a long-term solution came amidst one of the worst flood events the city has seen this decade.

"We do know that if we get more than two inches of rain, the system is incapable of handling it," said the mayor.

Due to historic highs already recorded in the Great Lakes, a streamline of rain magnified the potential for standing water, pushing it as high as some 14 foot overpasses along I-94.