By Gary Winkelman, C&G News

STERLING HEIGHTS — A pair of white gutters frame the front exterior of the red-brick house on the corner of Sorrento Boulevard at Dodge Park Road. An unblemished cement driveway leads to a crisp white garage door. Black shutters highlight the windows on the two-story facade. The front yard is nicely landscaped. 

Although it looks like just another simple suburban dwelling, this appearance is meant to be deceiving. The house is actually camouflage for equipment that eliminates a foul sewer smell that has long affected the surrounding neighborhood.

According to the Macomb County Public Works office, the machinery inside the house is a new “odor and corrosion control” apparatus that is part of the underground metering station that measures the amount of raw sewage that flows through the site. By extracting sewer gas from the large underground pipe that serves nearly two dozen communities in Macomb and Oakland County, the equipment reduces an unpleasant odor and protects the pipe from collapsing.

In addition to making conditions easier on the nose, officials also decided it was proper to disguise the massive device so it wasn’t an eyesore for nearby residents. 

“This facility was designed to be aesthetically pleasing and be a nice fit in a nice neighborhood with the greater purpose of eliminating the foul smell here that resulted in periodic complaints from residents for years and to protect the underground infrastructure,” said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, who joined a handful of local officials at a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the site on Oct. 5.

The facility is owned and managed by the Oakland-Macomb Interceptor Drain board and conveys raw sewage from residents and businesses in 11 of Macomb County’s communities and 13 municipalities in Oakland County. 

Miller’s Oakland County counterpart, Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash, said making the $5.3 million project look as unobtrusive as possible was an important consideration. 

“Nobody knows what’s in here on purpose,” he said. “We just want to blend in with the community.”

Construction of the facility started in March 2025 and was completed and operational in March 2026. Officials said it was accomplished with no increase in sewer rates. 

Passing the smell test
Sorrento Boulevard is just south of 17 Mile Road, on the east side of Dodge Park Road. In addition to single-family homes, the immediate area includes St. Ephrem Catholic Church and the Utica Community Education Center.

Macomb County Commissioner Joseph Romano, who lives nearby and regularly travels past the site, said sewer odor in the area was previously so “putrid” he would raise his car windows when passing by. The upgrade is significant, he said.

“Thanks to Commissioner Miller and her crew and innovative thinking, we have produced something in this neighborhood that I think all of the residents can be very proud of,” Romano said. “This not only enhances the neighborhood, it’s something that we don’t have to be ashamed of when we drive by.”

Sterling Heights Mayor Pro Tem Liz Sierawski agreed, calling the odor control facility “a major win for the residents who lived with this issue.”

“By thoughtfully designing the facility to resemble a home, we are addressing a longstanding infrastructure challenge in a way that respects the aesthetics and character of the surrounding neighborhood,” she said.

According to public works officials, the sewer odor is hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) that is created by turbulence in the flow of raw sanitary sewage. H2S is corrosive and causes the interior of the concrete pipe to degrade, which can lead to a collapse of the interceptor and a sinkhole.   

Inside the new facility, a large fan extracts the hydrogen sulfide from the pipe deep below the surface and sends it through a large vessel that contains an activated carbon media that polishes the air before it is released to the outside atmosphere. 

“What we’ve done here is important for us in regards to protecting the big investment that everybody has made in our underground infrastructure,” Miller said. “That’s critically important, of course. But in addition to that, to make sure that we’re doing it in an environmentally sensitive way and we are extremely committed to our environment, whether it’s water quality or air quality. So, it turned out to be a fantastic project.”

Read the article on C&G News.