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Sewage dumped in May: 4.6 billion gallons Amount tops any yearly total since tunnel opened By MARIE ROHDE and STEVE SCHULTZE
Posted: May 28, 2004 The sewerage district dumped an unprecedented 4.6 billion gallons of raw sewage this month - exceeding any annual dumping tally since the deep tunnel system opened in late 1993.
That included 3 billion gallons dumped between Friday and Tuesday, as well as 1.6 billion gallons dumped earlier in May.
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District officials blamed intense back-to-back storms and almost unrelenting rain for the massive sewage overflows. Since May 7, district rain gauges indicated a range of between 6.98 inches on Milwaukee's southeast side and 10.86 inches in Mequon.
'That's more than any sewage treatment system in the country could handle,' said Kevin Shafer, the district's executive director. The dumping 'is something we have to do if we want to minimize and prevent basement backups,' he said.
He said there were no operational errors he had uncovered that would help explain the record dumping volumes. Construction projects at the Jones Island treatment plant slowed the process of pumping out the deep tunnel, but MMSD officials have said so much sewage flow was coming so fast the projects made little or no difference in the dumping.
To visualize how much sewage was dumped by the district, consider these calculations: The 4.6 billion gallons would fill Miller Park 15 times over, from its base to its retractable roof. The sewage spill would also fill the U.S. Bank office tower on the lakefront 41 times.
Both the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are reviewing reports of the dumping. Under state and federal law, the portion of the dumping that came from sanitary sewers is illegal except in the most dire weather emergencies.
The vast majority of the sewage dumped in May - 4.14 billion gallons - was from the portions of Milwaukee and Shorewood where combined sewers carry both storm water and sanitary waste from homes and businesses. That can be dumped legally during some heavy storms as long as it does not adversely affect the water quality of local streams or Lake Michigan.
But there also were 475 million gallons of sanitary sewage dumped by MMSD, as well as 4.6 million gallons dumped from local sewers under the control of the City of Milwaukee and some suburbs. That dumping is expressly forbidden by federal law.
While the overall dumping of 4.6 billion gallons is huge, MMSD officials noted that 9.9 billion gallons of wastewater was treated at the two plants. Under normal conditions, the average would have been 3.36 billion gallons.
Before the tunnel was built, an average of 7 billion or 8 billion gallons of sewage was dumped annually by the district.
Beaches closed Meanwhile, three Milwaukee beaches were closed for the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional kickoff for summer. Shafer acknowledged that sewage overflows contributed to the beach closings but said they are not the only cause.
At a news conference Friday, Shafer was asked whether he felt responsible for the beach closings.
'We are not the one who produced the water that got into the system,' he said. 'We're not happy the beaches are closed, but you can only do so much.'
Mayor Tom Barrett said he had ordered the beaches closed even though the pollution numbers have improved since earlier in the week.
'At the first briefing the numbers were not good,' Barrett said. 'But I thought it was prudent to close the beaches.'
He said he's been assured that the drinking water - piped in from a mile and a half from shore - is excellent.
E. coli levels at the Linnwood treatment plant north of Bradford Beach spiked May 13 to 15 and from May 17 to 19, but they have remained below counts recorded last summer when the water temperature was warmer and the bugs could live longer. The highest count: 89 bacteria coliform per 100 milliliters on May 18, according to the Milwaukee Water Works.
By comparison, raw water at the treatment plant averaged 63 during August 2003, and on five days that month, the count was over 200, records show. Even with the higher counts in 2003, officials said the plant was able to make the water safe to drink.
Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), chairman of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, said he found the sewage dumping numbers 'staggering' and vowed to have MMSD appear before his committee to explain matters.
'I disagree with the assertion that these were monsoon rains,' Kedzie said. 'You know a monsoon when you see one, and this was not a monsoon.'
He thinks the district has to look at separating the combined sewer system in parts of Milwaukee and Shorewood. In addition, he said MMSD has to re-examine the way it operates the two plants so all equipment is operating when the rains come.
Finally, he said there must be improvements in the field: Southeastern Wisconsin has to more aggressively fight non-point source pollution. Retention ponds have to be built to capture water, and improvements along watersheds are needed to soak up rainwater before it flows into streams.
Runoff pollution a problem Robert Biebel, chief environmental planner at the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, said he does not believe the dumping will have a long-term effect on the rivers or Lake Michigan because of the tremendous volume of rain mixed with the sewage.
Biebel said that non-point source pollution - water that runs into streams, rivers and lakes from streets and fields and is not treated - is a bigger problem than dumping because it represents more pollution and less is being done to fix it.
Last week, Barrett called for an audit of MMSD to get to the root of the dumping woes. A committee he appointed will report their findings by Labor Day, he said.
Late Friday afternoon, the tunnel was still storing 128 million gallons of sewage. Terry Tobel, the manager of the plant operated by a private firm, said the tunnel would be emptied by Sunday - if the weather stays dry. However, rain was in the forecast for late today and Sunday.
'We're not out of the woods yet,' Shafer said. 'We're still on weather alert at MMSD.'
Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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