The federal flood study covering Oakland County lost half its budget and will no longer send a formal recommendation to Congress.

Bloomfield Township invited residents to help shape that study in February 2024. Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has cut the Southeast Michigan flood mitigation project from $10.5 million over eight years to $5 million over four years, Planet Detroit first reported. The study analyzes watersheds, combined sewer systems, rainfall and flooding across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

The stakes are personal here. The region has weathered three federally declared flood disasters in the past decade: 100-year storms in August 2014, June 2021 and August 2023.

Senior Army Corps project manager Susan Rusinowski disclosed the changes at a July quarterly update. She said the scope shifted from riverine and coastal flooding to urban, rainfall-driven flooding. The Army Corps adopted a new "R.A.P.I.D. Planning Framework" in April, and the Southeast Michigan project was downsized under it.

Parts of the study that overlapped with existing Army Corps work were removed entirely. That includes analysis near Oakland County's Red Run watershed, according to The Oakland Press.

Rusinowski framed the smaller study as potentially faster. Instead of producing a chief's report for Congress, the team will recommend solutions under Section 219 of the Water Resources Development Act. That route skips roughly two years of Congressional appropriations review.

"I think this is really, potentially a positive for the region just as far as the urgency with which we can deliver solutions," Rusinowski said at the July update.

The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) co-leads the study and provides a 50-50 in-kind match. GLWA spokesperson Stephen Jones said the cost-sharing agreement is unaffected by changes in federal funding. Jones said in a statement that the reduced schedule still allows for a technical report documenting analysis, findings and recommended alternatives.

Richard Smith, an associate dean at Wayne State University who has worked with flood-impacted communities, said the study found most flooding occurs around combined sewer service areas. He noted the study began under a different presidential administration and that the current administration has different priorities.

President Donald Trump has proposed cutting the Army Corps budget by 36% year-over-year, according to the Congressional data platform Legis1.

Closer to home, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash spoke at a stormwater education event at Birmingham's Linden Park on Saturday, Aug. 29. The park sits above a 9.5-million-gallon underground retention basin.

"In the past 30 years or so, we've seen much more heavy weather, much more large storms come through here, so the systems weren't built for that big a storm …" Nash said.

Birmingham's City Commission tightened its stormwater runoff ordinance on May 22, 2024, reducing allowable discharge rates. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) launched a separate flooding survey in July 2026 asking residents across the Birmingham-Bloomfield area to report how flooding affects them.

No date has been announced for the next quarterly update on the Army Corps study. Residents can track the project through GLWA and the Army Corps Detroit District.