A Fitting Dump

What a fitting way to end 2008--

With a dump!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The nearly 1 inch of rain that has fallen today, combined with water from melting snow, led the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District to begin the process of releasing untreated sewage into rivers and Lake Michigan about 3:40 p.m. today, MMSD spokesman Bill Graffin said.

MMSD prevents the flow from combined sewers from entering the Deep Tunnel in order to prevent overflows of separated sewers and to prevent basement backups. Some of that flow goes untreated into the lake and rivers.

Every inch of rain that falls in the district is the equivalent of 7.1 billion gallons of water – and that does not include the water that comes from melted snow, Graffin said.

MMSD has the capacity to treat or store about 1.1 billion gallons of water per day, he said.