A judge on Monday delivered a legal blow to efforts by Sterling Heights officials challenging the responsibility and costs involving the repair of the collapsed sewer on 15 Mile Road in Fraser.

Macomb County Circuit Judge Jennifer Faunce rejected the city’s request to have the city’s $22.2 million assessment set aside and that the Macomb Interceptor sewer board sue the Macomb County Wastewater District for breach of contract for failing to adequately operate and maintain the giant sewer.

The ruling means the Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District, representing 11 communities served by the sewer, can proceed with financing to pay for $75 million in repair the collapsed sewer which caused a sinkhole the size of a football field in Christmas Eve last year.

“We think the court absolutely made the right decision today,” Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller told reporters afterward.

She called the city’s lawsuit a “very irresponsible path of action” that threatened progress to repair the biggest infrastructure emergency the county has ever faced.

Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor was disappointed by the ruling, saying City Council will meet with their lawyers to discuss options moving forward.

“If Candice Miller won’t file a lawsuit, the residents of Sterling Heights are left holding the bag,” Taylor said. “That leaves us in a very difficult position.

“We’re trying to protect our rate-payers. We have to make sure the MIDDD is held accountable,” he said.

The lawsuit was filed in Macomb County Circuit Court on May 8, just hours after the MIDDD board voted to spend about $6 million to install 3,700 feet of hard liner in existing pipe to repair the existing sinkhole and prevent an additional collapse.

Following Sterling Heights’ court action, Miller said the MIDDD’s financial advisor advised the board it would be unable to sell the bonds intended to finance the $75 million repair project. Those costs would be borne by the half-million sewer users across 11 communities in the form of an increase in water/sewer bills for 30 years. That would jeopardize efforts to complete the project before winter as county officials had promised.

The bonds were to be sold on May 17. Even with Monday’s court victory by the MIDDD board, the sale of bonds will be delayed until May 24, Miller said.

That could stop or slow progress on sinkhole repairs and jeopardize efforts to complete the repair project before winter as promised by officials, she added.

The MIDD has been using $20 million loaned by Macomb County but that money has run dry. The sewer board expect to receive a $5 million grant approved recently in the Legislature.

The lawsuit by Sterling Heights –- the largest “user” of the sewer –- sought to undo the April 19 MIDD apportionment of costs, force the MIDDD to seek compensation from the MCWWD and enter an injunction barring MIDDD from assessing costs on Sterling Heights.

“Despite having material and competent evidence as to the poor condition of the interceptor at the time of the acquisition and the risk of imminent failure, MCWWD, an agency of Macomb County responsible for maintenance and repairs to the interceptor, did nothing to abate the conditions that likely caused the December 2016 collapse,” Sterling Heights officials said last week in a news release.

The city blamed the MIDDD, which was formed in 2010 to take over ownership of from Detroit, for failing to attempt to recover damages against its agent and thereby reduce the liability of the 11 Macomb County communities that are slated to pay for the project.

In addition to Sterling Heights, the other 10 members of MIDDD district include Fraser, Clinton Township, Chesterfield Township, Harrison Township (including Selfridge Air National Guard Base), Lenox Township, Macomb Township, New Haven, Shelby and Washington townships and the city of Utica.

Sterling Heights was the only one to take legal action challenging its assessment and attempt to force financial responsibility for the repairs to the collapsed portion to the county via the MCWWD.

Joseph Viviano, one of the attorneys representing the MIDDD board in court Monday, argued before Judge Faunce that the city’s request for “superintending control” was frivolous and, if approved, would create an opening that would allow any municipality of a drainage district to challenge any expense approved by the district board with sole authority to make those spending decisions where no allegation of impropriety was present.

“There’s not one allegation that Commissioner Miller or other board members acted in bad faith or there was fraud,” Viviano said.

“This project –- of all projects –- needs to move forward,” he said. “This is possibly the most necessary project in the history of Macomb County.”

But Kevin Gleason, an attorney hired this year by Sterling Heights officials to investigate the sewer collapse, argued the lawsuit would not hinder the planned bond sale. He called the assessment “illegal” and said the MIDDD board and the Macomb County Waste Water Disposal District failed in their obligations to adequately operate the sewer to prevent the collapse.

“There’s no evident there was ever any maintenance and inspection of the failed sewer by the wastewater district and the drainage district,” he said.

Another attorney representing the city, Marc Kaszubski, stated Sterling Heights officials are not claiming that repairs to the sewer are unnecessary.

“The county was the one who was supposed to maintain and repair. They didn’t,” Kaszubski said. “That’s why we believe it’s an illegal assessment.

“The county has obligations to fix this.”

Outside of court, Miller added: “The MIDDD board is not going to be suing the county, I can tell you that.”