The+Milwaukee+Perspective

**Challenge 20-20 Team from the University School of Milwaukee**



**Water in Milwaukee** **Introduction** **Water is and has been one of Milwaukee’s biggest assets since the founding of the city. Situated in the basin of one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, Milwaukee has benefitted immensely from having Lake Michigan right in its back yard. **

**However, with many benefits, also come challenges. As Milwaukee transitions into the post-industrial world, the danger of polluting this beautiful lake has come into the forefront of Milwaukee water discussions, as well as whether or not to distribute the water outside of the lake's basin. ** **The Problems **   **While it may seem that Milwaukee should be free of water problems with such a large freshwater resource next to it, this is not the case. With regards to water, Milwaukee has two large problems. The first is the problem with sewers. Most of the time pollution in Lake Michigan is not an issue. However, when Milwaukee receives large amounts of rain (as it usually does at least once a year) the sewage system overflows into the lake. This overflow is untreated rain water as well as sewage, which causes much damage to the lake. The second problem is more of a debate amongst those in the Milwaukee area. With all of this water, should we be allowed to distribute Lake Michigan water outside of the lake’s basin? Right now, there is legislation against that; however, many believe that with so many places lacking water, we should spread the water wealth. ** Although Milwaukee is transitioning into the post industrial world, the city is still dealing with a more industrial age sewage system. Although there have been improvements in the system, it is far from ideal, as on occasion, it heavily pollutes Lake Michigan.
 * Milwaukee Sewage System **

The MMSD (Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District) services a very large portion of southeastern Wisconsin (roughly about 1.1 million people in 28 communities, or 411 miles).



**Types of Sewers ** **Within these 411 miles, there are two types of sewers, combined and separate. ( **Note: the combined sewer zone is shown as the orange dashed area on the map above.) Separated sewer systems constitute 95% of the sewage system of Milwaukee. These systems have two types of pipes, one of handle the waste-water from showers, sinks, and toilets of homes and businesses. The other pipe transports storm-water runoff from streets, parking lots, and rooftops directly to the nearest river or lake every time it rains or snows. This, clearly, presents a water quality issue, as much of this storm water is not clean and then pollutes Milwaukee’s waterways.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">Combined sewers make up roughly 5% of MMSD’s servicing area. These combined sewers capture highly polluted storm-water runoff. However, when there is a large amount of rain, these sewers dump untreated waste water into Lake Michigan, to prevent back-ups into the basements of homes and businesses. While it is noted that these sewage overflows occur significantly less frequently, they still happen. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">Recent Attempts to Better the Sewers ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">**27th St. Deep Street Tunnel Extension** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">In early 2010, the city of Milwaukee constructed another 2 mile addition (roughly an additional 27 million gallons) to the city’s deep tunnel system. This “deep tunnel” holds the excess water so that water reclamation facilities can have time to handle the onslaught of water. With this addition, the tunnel will be able to hold 521 million gallons of water. However, while the deep tunnel has prevented large amounts of sewage overflow, there is still the question of whether or not this addition will be enough to prevent all overflow. This was part of the $1 billion dollar overflow reduction plan. Begun in 2007, this project involved digging access shafts and two 17 foot tunnels under the harbor. All of this would save room in the deep tunnel, and allow more waste water to go to Jones Island, a wastewater treatment facility. This was a push to add roughly 50 years of life to some of Milwaukee’s oldest sewers, all done without tearing up large sections of Milwaukee’s streets. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> **Other Solutions to the Problem** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">**Tom Barrett’s Efforts** Six years ago, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett launched an effort to try and prevent pollution from entering Lake Michigan. This involved the creation of retention ponds, bio-swales, gardens and underground repositories to filter storm-water through soil, gravel and organic material. These measures helped to decrease the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that enters the lake, which helps to prevent algal blooms. Flooding has been less of a problem in urban communities with many community gardens. Thus, programs have been enacted in Milwaukee schools to try and create community gardens. Thus far, this program has turned 77,000 square feet of parking lot into green space at 10 different schools. Similar, an agency called the Green Team has donated 14,000 55-gallon barrels to help collect rainwater for use in these gardens. This also prevents it from becoming run-off and polluting Milwaukee’s waterways. Similarly, Milwaukee has also been outfitted with “green streets.” On these green streets, developers have renovated streets with permeable pavement and curbs, which channel water into reservoirs 8 to 10 feet underground. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">**The Problem Still Remains** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">Despite all these attempted solutions within the past couple of years, the problem of polluted wastewater entering Lake Michigan from the sewers still remains. In late July of 2010 (after the 2 mile addition to the deep tunnel), there was an incredibly large rain storm in the Milwaukee area. This left roads and basements flooded, and large amounts of polluted rain water entered Lake Michigan. According to the //Lacrosse Tribune//, roughly 2 billion gallons worth of sewage and storm water was dumped into Lake Michigan and other Milwaukee area rivers. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">Lake Michigan and the Water Distribution Debate ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> For many years, the Great Lakes Compact has prevented Lake Michigan water from leaving its basin.
 * Harbor Siphons Project**
 * Sewer Rehabilitation**
 * Urban Gardens & Rain Barrels**
 * Green Streets**



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">As you can see from this picture, that watershed is quite narrow throughout the Milwaukee area. Thus towns and counties outside the Milwaukee area have wanted access to Lake Michigan water. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">However, recently, New Berlin has been able to get Lake Michigan water, because the township straddles the basin. For other cities, however, the path to getting lake water for public use is a little bit more tricky. Waukesha is distinctly outside the basin, and would need the approval of state regulators and all the Great Lakes states in order to receive Great Lakes water. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">Thus, although Waukesha is fairly close to Milwaukee, the question is if Waukesha, what next? How far will this line extend? <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">Information from **: <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">The Associated Press. "2 Billion Gallons of Sewage, Storm Water Dumped into Lake Michigan, Rivers." <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> Enriquez, Daryl. "New Berlin's Request for Lake Water Approved, a First Under the Great Lakes Compact." //The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel//, May 21, 2009<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">[] <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">//The Lacrosse Tribune//, July 28, 2010 []  <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">Lydersen, Kari. "Milwaukee Pioneers Innovative Stormwater Controls." //The Great Lakes Echo//, April 5, 2011. [] <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"> Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewers District. <span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; line-height: 19px; padding-right: 10px;">[]