Raw sewage from urban areas is a big source of pollution
in the Great Lakes. And a lot of people are fighting over how best to keep it out. Now, the Milwaukee area’s sewer district is once again the focus of a bitter legal fight. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee reports on the dispute:
Transcript
Raw sewage from urban areas is a big source of pollution in the Great Lakes. And a lot of people
are fighting over how best to keep it out. Now, the Milwaukee area’s sewer district is once again
the focus of a bitter legal fight. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee reports on the
dispute:
Last week, Wisconsin’s Attorney General filed suit against the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage district. The suit seeks extensive upgrades to keep raw sewage out of Wisconsin’s
waterways.
Last year, spring storms overwhelmed local sewers and the district dumped millions of gallons of
raw sewage into rivers and Lake Michigan. Sewer district spokesperson, Bill Graffin, says the
lawsuit seeks the impossible – a perfect sewer system.
“You can never ever say that you will eliminate all overflows, because you never know what
Mother Nature’s going to throw at you. If you design your system to the biggest storm you’ve
ever had, there’s always the possibility that a bigger storm’s going to come along.”
The district contends it’s already overwhelmed by current upgrade projects, which may cost
nearly a billion dollars. Many of those projects are required by previous lawsuits.
The Attorney General says the district must improve, and it should either raise additional money
itself or seek state assistance.
For the GLRC, I’m Shawn Allee.