Mount Clemens has been the county seat since 1818 and a city since 1879, and its housing is old. Census figures give a median build year of 1955, and 32.1% of homes went up in 1939 or earlier. That age shows in the pipes: cast iron stacks, clay laterals, and galvanized supply patched with copper over the decades. The city also treats its own Lake St. Clair water and runs its own wastewater plant. We work across 48043, from the riverfront blocks to the streets off Gratiot and Groesbeck.
Pre-1940 basements and Clinton River backups
Seventy-two percent of the city's 7,166 housing units were built before 1970. In a house that old, expect an original cast iron stack, a clay lateral with joints that roots can open, and floor drains tied straight to the house sewer. Anything that slows the lateral shows up at that floor drain first.
The river adds pressure. On August 12, 2014, the county executive reported the Clinton River at 16.3 feet in Mount Clemens, possibly an all-time high. The Cut-Off Canal has carried flood flows to Lake St. Clair since 1951, but the USGS notes it won't necessarily stop future floods. In 2022, Riverside Drive residents told the City Commission about repeated sewage backups into their basements.
The city's sewer flyer names its top causes of basement water as sanitary backups from a blocked lateral or public main, groundwater through wall cracks and footing drains, and runoff from poor grading. It asks owners to have the house sewer cleaned at least once a year, request a video inspection, and carry downspout water 5 feet or more away from the house. Parts of town still have combined sewers, where storm water and sewage share one pipe, so a hard rain loads the same line your floor drain empties into. A sewer separation project near Church Street, Kendrick Street and Lois Lane aims to cut backups on the public side.
Plumbing for riverfront and downtown homes
Sewer inspection and line repair
The city tells owners to clean the house sewer yearly and ask for video, and Riverside Drive had repeated backups in 2022. Video shows whether the clog is in your lateral or the main.
Main water line repair and replacement
The city counted 213 confirmed lead service lines and 2,363 of unknown material out of 6,037 in December 2025. A confirmed lead line gets replaced end to end.
Hydro jetting
With 32.1% of homes built before 1940, many laterals are clay or cast iron that collect roots and scale. Jetting scours the whole pipe wall clean.
Sump pump installation and repair
Sump pumps are city permit work, and the city lists footing-drain seepage among the top causes of basement water. Low lots near the Clinton River work the pump hardest.
Water heater installation
Mount Clemens requires a permit for a new water heater, issued at City Hall on Crocker Boulevard. With 40.6% of homes rented, the owner usually approves the swap.
Whole home repiping
Seventy-two percent of the city's housing went up before 1970, and many of those homes still carry galvanized supply patched with copper. Repiping ends the patchwork.
Permits here come from the city, not the state, at City Hall on Crocker Boulevard. Its list of common permit projects covers water heaters, sump pumps, backflow devices, new fixtures and any change to water or sewer lines. If a boiler or irrigation line needs a backflow device checked, our page on backflow testing requirements explains the process, and you can call us to find out whether we can test your device.
The city water plant on the lake and the planned GLWA switch
Unlike Fraser, Mount Clemens doesn't buy GLWA water yet. Its filtration plant has drawn Lake St. Clair water through a 30-inch intake since July 1, 1929, was doubled in size in 1959 and added ozone treatment in 2000. The city reported 213 confirmed lead service lines as of December 2025, and a more detailed inventory is under way. Its 2025 lead sampling came back with a 90th-percentile result of 2.0 ppb and no samples over the action level, which is reassuring for the system but tells you nothing about your own pipe. If your line turns out to be lead, that's main water line replacement work.
Wastewater goes to the city's own treatment plant on Clara Street, beside the Gibraltar Trade Center off North River Road.
You'll know the neighborhoods we mean: the blocks around Clinton River Park downtown, the streets near Shadyside Park, where the first city water plant drew from the river in 1888, and the homes along North River Road by MacArthur Park.
From Groesbeck to your basement stairs
We are based just off Groesbeck Highway, which heads northeast through Clinton Township and curves into Mount Clemens around the north side of the river, so that's usually our way in. On the phone we'll ask what you're seeing, whether it's a rental, and whether a tenant needs to let us in.
At the house we start at the lowest drain, usually the floor drain or the cleanout on the stack. When a backup repeats, we run a camera down the lateral, because a clog that keeps returning has a cause: roots at a clay joint, a sag, a broken section. You see the footage before choosing a fix, and sewer line inspection and repair covers what each finding leads to.
Our article on tree roots in a sewer line compares cutting, jetting, lining and replacement.
Mount Clemens questions about lead lines and the lake water plant
Is Mount Clemens switching to GLWA water?
The city has voted to pursue it, but the change hasn't happened. In December 2022 the City Commission dropped a new-plant plan and chose to seek a Great Lakes Water Authority connection. The 2025 water report still lists the city's own Lake St. Clair plant as the source, and no switch date has been published. When it comes, run cold taps for a few minutes if pressure shifts or water looks cloudy.
How can I tell if my Mount Clemens service line is lead?
Look at the pipe entering your basement ahead of the water meter and scratch it lightly with a key. Lead is dull gray, scratches to bright silver and won't hold a magnet. Copper scratches to a penny color, and galvanized steel grabs a magnet. With 2,363 lines still listed as unknown material, plenty of homes haven't been confirmed either way.
Cities around Mount Clemens we also cover
See every city we serve from Fraser · Tree roots in your sewer line and how they get fixed · Backflow testing and who in Macomb County needs it