The Great Lakes Water Authority is denying all damage claims made in relation to flooding events last summer.

The agency announced its decision on Tuesday and said it is sending official notification by mail to claimants this week.

GLWA, a regional body that manages wastewater treatment and stormwater control for about a third of Southeast Michigan, is denying about 24,000 claims relating to the 2021 flooding.

The decision follows an independent investigation administered by GLWA's board of directors in response to the flooding that ripped through metro Detroit and caused billions of dollars in damages.

AECOM, a global engineering company based in Dallas, conducted the investigation and concluded that the rainfall amount last summer "exceeded the design capacity of the wastewater system, making surface flooding and basement backups inevitable," a GLWA spokesperson stated.

According to the release sent Tuesday, the agency is denying all claims based on two factors: Widespread basement flooding was "inevitable due to the unprecedented amount and intensity of the rainfall that occurred on June 25-26, 2021," and even if all equipment in the regional system had worked perfectly, flooding and basement damage would have still occurred. Also, GLWA stated that under Michigan's Governmental Liability for Negligence Act, a public entity is liable for basement flooding and sewage disposal system issues only if a defect in the system was at least 50 percent responsible for the event.

Josh Elling, CEO of neighborhood service organization Jefferson East Inc., said: "We are extremely disappointed in GLWA's decision."

A state of emergency was declared for Detroit and surrounding Wayne County following a storm that began on June 25, 2021, and dumped more than 6 inches of rain, which overloaded the area's wastewater systems. Some streets and hundreds of basements were flooded, causing widespread property damage.

Sue McCormick, who ran the Great Lakes Water Authority at the time, said days after the storm that two Detroit water pumping stations designed to carry wastewater and excess storm water to treatment facilities experienced power-related problems but didn't fail during the storm.

Due to an electrical service issue, only three of six pumps at one station could be brought online, while a power outage at a second station slowed efforts to turn three of its pumps on as the rain poured, she said.

Eventually, five of the six pumps at the Connor Creek station were able to operate. Both Connor Creek and the nearby Freud stations serve Detroit's east side and several suburban communities.

While the sheer amount of rainfall played a major role in the flooding, Elling said the damage was exacerbated by the pumps' immobility during prime hours of the storms.

While the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is more prone to flooding due to its landscape, Elling said failure of pump stations led to greater damage, loss of property and an increase in street flooding, which led to more car flooding.

Home repairs as a result of last summer's flooding continue. In the last few weeks, Elling said the organization has aided 19 homeowners in sanitizing and mold remediation.

For the vast majority of affected homeowners, their insurance policies won't cover the costs of the flood damage, according to Paul Doherty, managing attorney for Ven Johnson Law, which represents about 600 people who sustained flood damage and which filed a class-action lawsuit over the claims.

"Most people don't have coverage and most people have to shoulder their loss," Doherty said. "Estimates say it caused over $100 million in property damage. I think that's (estimate) low. People have put in brand new drywall, brand new furnaces."

CEO Suzanne Coffey said the water authority understands "the difficult situations homeowners and businesses face when flooding occurs."

"We are experiencing increased frequency and intensity of storms hitting our region," she said. "This is why it's critical to focus on building resiliency in the regional system."

GLWA stated in the release that it is working to get federal funding for a flood study conducted with the Army Corps of Engineers. The study, which generally costs a few million dollars and takes years to complete, would evaluate potential solutions like implementation of wastewater storage at grade or deep tunnel levels, pumping stations, large diameter relief sewers and strategic sewer separation.

Elling voiced support for the study and said he wants to see more united efforts on the local and national level to address old infrastructure and environmental concerns.

"We're dealing with the new, brutal reality of climate change," Elling said.

The Detroit-based water authority is comprised of 88 member communities and provides drinking water to nearly 40 percent of the people living in Michigan. It also provides wastewater services to nearly 30 percent of state residents.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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