Tom McMahon

Mayor John Norquist Kills Separate Sewers in Milwaukee

An excerpt from the 2003 Wisconsin Policy Research Institute report, "Government Pollution: The Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District's Impact on Lake Michigan." :

In what seemed like an echo from the past, the DNR secretary recommended in 2001 that the separation of sewers be reviewed as part of an alternative plan for solving the sewer problems. To many Metro Milwaukee residents, this was ironic. After having been eliminated as an option twenty years ago, and after $2.8 billion had been spent on a different approach, separation of the combined sewers was in the spotlight again. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District was against it. A spokesman for the MMSD explained that the alternative had been rejected two decades ago because it would have cost too much and because it raised the possibility that pollution levels in the lake would increase if untreated water from the storm sewers flowed into the waterways. A former Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission executive director turned consultant, Kurt Bauer, added that the first flush of rainwater from city streets is just as dirty as raw sewage. And the director of the EPA’s waste management office claimed that other cities were moving toward storage instead of separation of sewers because of cost and other problems. But he added that old sewers that needed to be replaced could be incorporated into a sewer separation project.

Mayor Norquist and Antonio Riley, the former MMSD commission chairman, adamantly opposed the separation option, citing problems of cost and disruption to downtown traffic. They also predicted that separation would degrade water quality. They blamed the proposal on partisan politics, with Mayor Norquist accusing the DNR secretary of resurrecting the sewer wars by proposing something for which city residents would pay, while the suburbs were relieved of costs. However, some suburban officials said the separation option should be considered and that the suburban communities would be willing to help with the cost.

Map Of Combined Sewer Systems In The United States

Map Of Combined Sewer Systems In The United States

From the EPA:

Combined sewer system are remnants of the country's early infrastructure and so are typically found in older communities. Combined sewer systems serve roughly 772 communities containing about 40 million people.

In Southeastern Wisconsin, Milwaukee has the only combined sewer system, hence that one dot in Wisconsin you see on the map. More from the EPA:

Combined sewer systems are sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. Most of the time, combined sewer systems transport all of their wastewater to a sewage treatment plant, where it is treated and then discharged to a water body. During periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt, however, the wastewater volume in a combined sewer system can exceed the capacity of the sewer system or treatment plant. For this reason, combined sewer systems are designed to overflow occasionally and discharge excess wastewater directly to nearby streams, rivers, or other water bodies.

These overflows, called combined sewer overflows (CSOs), contain not only stormwater but also untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials, and debris. They are a major water pollution concern for the approximately 772 cities in the U.S. that have combined sewer systems.