Lansing council member says most of the city’s catch basins haven’t been cleaned since 2024

LANSING, Mich. — Lansing has about 13,000 catch basins, the curbside storm drains that carry rain off city streets. Council Member Adam Hussain says only about 3,800 of them have been addressed since 2024, WILX reported Tuesday.

Hussain told the station the backlog could mean more flooding, harm to local waterways and infrastructure that wears out before its time. He also said the city is required under the Clean Water Act to have a fully funded basin program and is out of compliance now.

He wants the city to stop waiting for problems. At a recent council meeting, Hussain asked for money for a dedicated two-person crew and a truck to clean every basin in the city on a regular schedule, WILX reported. He did not put a price on it, but said the truck could double as a snowplow. The city has one such truck now, and Hussain said it is not always running.

The council has backed him so far. At its Sept. 28 meeting, members passed a motion making the work a budget priority, according to the station. Council Vice President Trini Pehlivanoglu told WILX the funding is crucial and asked that it be addressed in the mayor’s strategic plan.

The city says the harder job is below the grate. Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick told WILX the sump at the bottom of each basin, which holds back debris and heavy metals before they reach the rivers, has not historically been cleaned often. The city’s state permit calls for cleaning the basins every three years, he said.

More crews would not come cheap. Kilpatrick put a new truck at several hundred thousand dollars and each added crew at about $100,000 a year, and said the most cost-effective answer will likely mix city staff with outside contractors, according to the station.

The city’s own numbers show how uneven the work has been. The Public Service Department’s 2024 annual report says crews cleaned 1,048 catch basins that year, up from 77 in 2023.

Cheryl Vosburg of the Michigan Water Environment Association told WILX that cities have a hard time keeping up because there are so many basins and limited money to maintain them. She asked residents to help by keeping the drains near their homes clear of debris and keeping out anything that does not belong in a storm sewer.

Updated Oct. 7, 2026: Added Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick’s response and cost estimates from WILX’s updated report, and removed a line saying he was expected to present the city’s plan Tuesday evening, which the station no longer reports.

Sources:
WILX News 10, “Councilman says thousands of Lansing catch basins haven’t been cleaned since 2024,” Oct. 6, 2026 (updated), https://www.wilx.com/2026/10/06/councilman-says-thousands-lansing-catch-basins-havent-been-cleaned-since-2024/
City of Lansing Public Service Department, 2024 Annual Report, https://www.lansingmi.gov/asset/6863a428-b4dc-40d1-ba0a-f3cac133e07c
Photo: w_lemay, “Lansing City Hall, Michigan Avenue and Capitol Avenue, Lansing, MI,” 2024, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lansing_City_Hall,_Michigan_Avenue_and_Capitol_Avenue,_Lansing,_MI.jpg

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