Mount Clemens Officials Celebrate Completion of New Septic and Vactor Receiving Station
Posted on March 24, 2025
Mount Clemens Wastewater Plant Chief Operator Mike Doggett and Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp hold the scissors at a ribbon-cutting for the new Septic and Vactor Receiving Station March 14. Joining the celebration is Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, who is wearing fluorescent yellow, and state Rep. Denise Mentzer, who is next to Hackel on the right. Other supporters, including government officials and employees from civil engineering firm Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, Inc., also participated in the ribbon-cutting event.
Improvements will increase efficiency at wastewater treatment plant
MOUNT CLEMENS — The city of Mount Clemens will continue to do its part to help manage metro Detroit’s septic waste, thanks to the completion of a new Mount Clemens Wastewater Treatment Plant Septic and Vactor Receiving Station.
To celebrate the occasion, city officials held a March 14 ribbon-cutting ceremony at the septic station, located on the grounds of the Mount Clemens Wastewater Treatment Plant at 1750 Clara St. in Mount Clemens.
The septic station accepts waste from septic and vactor haulers that service local home septic tanks, portable toilets, and more. In addition, vactor trucks that are responsible for cleaning out stormwater and sanitary sewers can also drop off the waste at the station.
According to Mount Clemens city officials, the Mount Clemens site is only one of a limited number of septic and vactor receiving stations in the metro Detroit area, and it has historically served Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, St. Clair, and Lapeer counties. However, the original receiving station, which had been established in 1989, had been nearing the end of its functional lifespan.
As a result, in March 2024, Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, Inc. (AEW) was selected to offer its architectural and civil engineering services as part of an estimated $3 million project to design a brand-new new septic and vactor receiving station.
The bulk of the construction took place between May and December of last year. Work crews established the foundation and structure for the new station building and solids handling area; installed infrastructure such as HVAC, utilities, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems for computerized monitoring; and more.
According to AEW Water Resources Group Lead Taylor Sting, the new facility will empower the city to continue to collect and safely dispose of septic and vactor sewage for decades to come.
Sting explained that, prior to the new improvements, the facility’s septic receiving pit did not separate the solid waste from the leachate. As a result, it had relied on the wastewater plant to separate any solids through bar racks and a special settling tank known as a clarifier.
But now, the new facility properly disposes of its received waste by effectively separating the solids from the sewage. The solids are transferred to dumpsters, and that waste will go to a landfill. Meanwhile, the remaining leachate is sent to the headworks of the Mount Clemens Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“The separation of the septic solids before sending the sewage through the wastewater treatment plant will cut down on the WWTP resources needed to treat the sewage,” Sting said. “The facility will also improve the billing process with the haulers by measuring the amount of sewage delivered.”
Before the ribbon-cutting event, Mount Clemens City Manager Gregg Shipman described the crucial role that the WWTP plays in the region for accepting sewage. Shipman expressed his happiness with the project’s successful culmination, and he said the new state-of-the-art sewage separation system is just the first in many more large infrastructure projects to come for Mount Clemens.
“This is the first major infrastructure project for wastewater in nearly 20 years,” he said.
During her ribbon-cutting remarks, Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp said the new facility will increase sustainability and “preserve the integrity of our system, our entire wastewater treatment facility.” She thanked AEW for “figuring out how the poop will flow.”
“So, we are definitely not sitting on our hands and saying, ‘We hope that Mount Clemens gets better,’” Kropp said. “We are making the investment, we are planning for the future, and we are building it with everyone together.”
According to Mount Clemens officials, $1.5 million of the project’s funding came from a state allocation sponsored by state Rep. Denise Mentzer. The rest of the funding is local, officials added.