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USEPA: 'no
evidence'
that
Milwaukee overflows
closed Chicago beaches
MMSD
Release - 8/14
MILWAUKEE
- United States Environmental Protection Agency Secretary
Christine Todd Whitman says there is "no direct
evidence" to support the allegations of eight Illinois U.S.
representatives that Milwaukee sewer overflows are the cause of
Lake Michigan beach closings in Illinois.
"The
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is pleased that the EPA
has come to the same conclusion on this issue as others in the
scientific community," said MMSD Commission chairman Antonio
Riley, a State Representative from Milwaukee. "Now we can
hopefully focus our collective attention and work cooperatively as
a region to address the factors, such as polluted runoff, that do
contribute to beach closings. This is a complex issue that needs a
lot more research."
In
May 2002, Illinois Congresswoman Janice Schakowski wrote a letter,
signed by seven other lawmakers, to the EPA secretary demanding
that action be taken against MMSD for sewer overflows.
Secretary
Whitman disputed Schakowski’s claim adding, "There are many
potential contributing sources of E. coli that prompt beach
closings, including stormwater runoff, animal waste and water
fowl, as well as sewer overflows.
"Secretary
Whitman noted that overflows "… can adversely impact
beaches locally, to date the EPA has no direct evidence that
supports the contention that there is a direct relationship
between Milwaukee discharges and closures of beaches in the
Chicago area."
According
to the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, lake
currents during the summer months typically flow from Chicago
north to Milwaukee.
"We’ve
experienced a record number of beach closings in Milwaukee this
summer when, up to this week, there was only one overflow, which
was back in April," said Riley. "We’ve said numerous
times that beach closings will continue to happen even if there
are no overflows. This summer proves the point."
EPA
has determined that only 5 percent of beach closings nationwide
are as a result of combined sewer overflows or separate sewer
overflows. In comparison, 20 percent of beach closings are caused
by stormwater runoff and 10 percent of wildlife. About 52 percent
are unknown, but have been determined not to be from E. coli from
humans.
Scientific
research on this issue by experts in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit
and Indiana all point to sea gull droppings and stormwater runoff
as major contributing factors in beach closings. Of the E. coli
contamination that closes beaches, a study in Chicago found that
50 percent of the E. coli wasdirectly linked to waterfowl
droppings. The other 50 percent is unknown, but not linked to
humans.
Both
the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the EPA agree
that rainwater runoff is the biggest source of water pollution in
the country. MMSD stormwater test results for 2000 and 2001 found
levels of E. coli and fecal coliform thousands of times higher
than the concentrations needed to close beaches or those allowed
by the government to be discharged from wastewater treatment
plants.
Milwaukee
is a national leader in the reduction of sewer overflows with only
2.6 overflows a year, compared with an average of 50 to 60
overflows a year prior to the start up of the Inline Storage
System (ISS) in 1994. In fact, the ISS has resulted in a 95
percent reduction in fecal coliforms and 93 percent reduction in
total suspended solids in Milwaukee-area waterways.
Riley
said he hoped the EPA's letter would help focus attention on the
creation of a national environmental trust fund to clean the Great
Lakes. The fund would be patterned after a federal fund
established several years ago to restore Florida's
Everglades.
Money
from it could be used for efforts ranging from improving the
edibility of fish to reducing polluted stormwater runoff from land
bordering the Great Lakes.
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