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MMSD to
accelerate sewer projects to reduce overflows
MMSD Release -
9/4
The Milwaukee
Metropolitan Sewerage District has developed a proposal to
accelerate one of its major sewer projects and implement other
initiatives as part of a $1 billion plan to further reduce the
number of sewer overflows in the Milwaukee area, District
officials told a State Legislative Committee Wednesday.
At the same time,
MMSD Commission Chairman Antonio Riley told members of the
Legislative Audit Committee that it is up to the State Legislature
to decide whether to enact stricter sewer overflow standards for
the Milwaukee area than any other metropolitan area in the United
States, and force the District to implement additional storage
that would cost more than $2 billion and force the District to
double its tax rate.
Forcing the
District to implement such a plan would bring little or no
improvement in water quality, Riley said. Engineers have
determined that sewer overflows make up only up to 15 percent of
the current pollutant loadings in Milwaukee-area waterways.
"The
legislature can require this action of MMSD," said Riley, who
is also a state representative from Milwaukee. "But this
comes with a tremendous cost that would only have a minuscule
effect on water quality in Milwaukee-area rivers and Lake
Michigan. What it would do is a build a massive economic wall
around the Milwaukee area that would seriously damage the economic
well-being of the metropolitan area."
The State
Legislature passed legislation in 1985, which was affirmed in
1995, that directed the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
not to exceed the federal standard of four to six combined sewer
overflows allowed per year. This is the number of combined sewer
overflows in MMSD's operating permit which MMSD has not exceeded
since the Deep Tunnel System was put in operation in 1994.
District
officials said a storage estimate compiled by Rust/Harza, a
national engineering firm that has worked on wastewater storage
systems throughout the country including Chicago’s Deep Tunnel
System, was based on the June 21, 1997 flood that hit the
Milwaukee area with up to eight inches of rain. It forced a sewer
overflow of 1.8 billion gallons. It would require a
35-foot-diameter tunnel that would be nearly 48 miles long and be
interconnected with the existing 19-mile Deep Tunnel System. It
does not include the estimate of costs for additional capacity at
the District’s two treatment plants or financing.
The Deep Tunnel
System has reduced the number of sewer overflows from an annual
average of 50 a year to 2.6 since it was put in operation. In
addition, the tunnel system has reduced the overflow volume from
an average of 8 billion gallons a year to an average of 1.7
billion gallons a year.
"It is
important to understand the cost of this to our individual
customers and then to determine the benefits it would provide our
rivers and Lake Michigan," said MMSD Executive Director Kevin
Shafer. "I agree, we should do whatever possible to reduce
the number and volume of overflows as much as possible, but we can
never guarantee zero overflows. I would hate to spend billions of
dollars in the coming years only to be faced with the same
problems in the future."
The District is
concerned about the number of sewer overflows in the Milwaukee
area and is taking several steps to further reduce the number of
overflows, Shafer said.
"Improving
water quality is the highest priority for MMSD," he said.
"We believe even fewer overflows should be achieved. We are
undertaking many initiatives on many fronts to accomplish that
goal. It is time to look forward on this issue, rather than
continuing to rehash the politically divisive past."
The District’s
plans include the implementation of a court-ordered stipulation
that will increase the system’s storage capacity by 116 million
gallons, or about 30 percent. Construction recently began on the
$131 million Northwest Side Relief Sewer, which will add about 88
million gallons of storage and provide additional capacity to
several communities in the northwestern portion of the
District’s service area.
In addition,
Shafer said District officials have determined it can accelerate
one of its critical projects and is reviewing other projects to
see if they can be sped up to bring about additional conveyance in
a shorter period of time.
"As state
legislators know, we have to find a balance between the number of
projects we can undertake at one time and the amount of taxes
collected from residents we serve," he said.
Shafer said MMSD
will accelerate its Port Washington Relief Sewer by three years
ahead of what is required under the DNR stipulation. The $19
million project, which will begin design in 2003, will add
conveyance capacity for north shore communities of Milwaukee
County, along with the City of Mequon.
Other projects
include a $3.1 million clear water rerouting project, in which the
District will identify areas where clear water can be rerouted
from combined sewers directly to area waterways, allowing for more
capacity in the conveyance system for wastewater. This approach is
being used on the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange with
the state of Wisconsin.
In addition, the
District is implementing a $12 million upgrade of its
instrumentation and control system, which monitors wastewater
flows in the conveyance system and at the District’s two
treatment plants. The project includes installation of
state-of-the-art "real time" controls that will provide
updated information on system performance every five minutes. The
information will help the District maximize existing system
capacity during heavy rainstorms.
Shafer said the
recent audit conducted by the Legislative Audit Bureau raised
several important issues, all of which were already being
addressed by the District prior to the start of the audit.
"As with any
report card, there are some weaknesses that need to be addressed,
and I intend to do the utmost, as the executive director, to make
sure these issues are rectified," he said.
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