Environment
Heavier storms threaten states ageing drains
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By RAY WILBUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — While people in Florida gear up for more intense hurricanes, Michigan officials are bracing for heavier rainfall caused by global warming ,and that threatens the state’s aging drains and the Great Lakes. Local drain commissioners are questioning how to handle the influx of water and the problems it brings. And more intense, heavier rainfall has become more prevalent in Michigan, said Joan Rose, an international expert in water microbiology, quality and public health at Michigan State University. That causes trouble not only for the state’s old drainage systems and its water sources but for animal and human health, she said. “When it rains, the water moves contaminants quite broadly,” Rose said.