A major spill of raw sewage in Macomb County that occurred last week was reported to the public in a wildly inaccurate manner by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The DEQ reported on its website that the discharge of human waste, caused by a sewer line break, amounted to 0.0009 million gallons, or 90 gallons. In fact, county officials report that the spill amounted to 90,000 gallons – 1,000 times larger than what the DEQ claims.

Some may want to dismiss this as a minor error, a simple case of putting decimal point in the wrong place. But the difference in volume between 90,000 gallons and 90 gallons –some 89,910 gallons – is quite significant when the matter at hand involves raw sewage.

For example, a typical backyard swimming pool contains about 15,000 gallons of water. So, the difference between what the DEQ reported and what county officials say was actually dumped is the equivalent of about six swimming pools. Picture that.

The waste reportedly flowed into the Groesbeck Highway drains. From there it would have traveled through the drainage system and would have been flushed into Lake St. Clair.

At a time when the DEQ’s reputation has been tattered by the Flint water crisis, it’s certainly disconcerting that the agency cannot keep tabs on a five-figure spill in a county that routinely experiences more than 1 billion gallons of sewage overflows annually.

Beyond the environmental damage, the sewer break created a major disruption as it took place in front of the Sheriff’s Department and county jail and closed Elizabeth Road, the main road to the large county government complex in Clinton Township, for about a week. The underground pipe had to be replaced.

The sewer break occurred in a line that flows from the jail, making it a repair problem for the Facilities and Operations Department, which is overseen by County Executive Mark Hackel. The Macomb County Public Works Commissioner’s Office, also located close by, helped to control the sewage spill when it first occurred.