From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Nearly 1 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water - double the capacity of the deep tunnel system - spilled out of combined sanitary and storm sewers in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood into local rivers and Lake Michigan during intense rain Friday and early Saturday.
In an overflow report given to state environmental officials Tuesday, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District says combined sewer overflows totaled 935.7 million gallons - one-third of the record set last June. The 2.9 billion gallons spilled a year ago marked the largest combined sewer overflow since the district's deep tunnel wastewater storage system opened in 1994.
Several separate sanitary sewers under district control also overflowed during the storms, pouring an additional 56.1 million gallons of diluted sewage into waterways, the district says in the report.
Of course, it's horrible to dump raw sewage or blended sewage into Lake Michigan and local waterways.
It would be worse to allow the sewage to bubble up into people's homes.
A day at the beach isn't very appealing, knowing that the lake is being used as a toilet. Actually, it's more like an outhouse or a porta-potty, kind of a holding tank.
Still, given the options, I can't criticize the dumping.
Would you be willing to volunteer your home's basement to be used as a receptacle for the sewage?
1 comment:
Billions of gallons and billions of dollars spent in non-effective CSO and Stormwater Management programs... That's the only thing I read or hear.
Of course there is no way to compare at having our basements a sewer tanks. But there are other solutions.. First, let try to find effective and cost efficient options because sewer rates and taxes will rise..... Who are the decision makers? I hear that EPA,Army Corps, Towns or DEO are the stakeholders but I cannot tell.
Thanks
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