Thursday, July 15, 2010

Barrett and Untreated Sewage and Feingold

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and MMSD dumping sewage into Lake Michigan.

Tom Barrett has been the mayor of Milwaukee since 2004. I wonder what the grand total is of the gallons of sewage dumped into the lake and local waterways on Barrett's watch.

Did you know that Barrett is an environmentalist?

He won an award for his Green Fleet, although he does use a car for campaigning that has a suspended registration because it hasn't passed a required emissions test.

Barrett also brags about protecting the Great Lakes. He won't let BP drill and foul the "pristine" shorelines of Lake Michigan.

By the way, I wonder when the beaches will be closed after the heavy rain of yesterday and this morning.

There will be closures and warnings. That's a given.

As we speak, freshwater fouled by the dumping of untreated sewage is gently lapping on those "pristine" shorelines Barrett allegedly guards.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Overflows of untreated sewage from sanitary sewers to local streams and rivers throughout the Milwaukee metropolitan area began shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday as the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's deep tunnels filled nearly to capacity, officials said.

The main tunnels filled to 98.6% of their 432 million gallon capacity by 9 a.m. Thursday, after overnight thunderstorms dropped more than 4 inches of rain throughout the metropolitan area, records show.

At 9:05 a.m., MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer ordered the closing of all gates connecting separate sanitary sewers throughout the district's service area to the tunnel. The closings cause sanitary sewer overflows in an attempt to prevent sewer backups into basements, Shafer said.

During overflows, most of the wastewater in the pipes continues to flow to the district's Jones Island and South Shore treatment plants.

The northwest side deep tunnel, which receives flows only from outlying suburban communities, had filled to nearly 60% of its 89 million gallon capacity shortly before 9 a.m. and was continuing to accept wastewater.

The district serves 28 communities in a 411-square-mile service area.

At 1:20 a.m., Shafer closed gates connecting combined sanitary and storm sewers to the tunnel, resulting in combined sewer overflows in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood to local rivers and Lake Michigan. The combined sewer overflows were ordered in an attempt to reserve space in the tunnels for wastewater flows from communities with separate sanitary sewers.

Barrett should take a dip in the lake at South Shore, go for a nice swim.

He's so concerned about protecting the Great Lakes from the evil oil industry. Surely, Barrett wouldn't stand by while millions of gallons of sewage pour into this priceless natural resource.

Russ Feingold, too. He should join Barrett for a day at the beach. He's running a TV ad claiming that he'll protect the lake from the oil companies, the environmental rapists. (Russ, of course, is wearing one of his trademark plaid shirts in the ad.) Feingold makes the absurd claim that his opponent Ron Johnson is "willing to hand over the Great Lakes to the oil companies, threatening Wisconsin's economy and a way of life for generations of Wisconsin families."

That, of course, is an oily lie, flat-out false.

What's Feingold doing to keep Lake Michigan from being used as sewer? At the very least, he could post a "NO DUMPING" sign.




Obviously, Dems are hoping to exploit the public's anger at BP. What else can they run on?

Swim in it, Tom and Russ.

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Ron Johnson has responded to Feingold's mudslinging, setting the record straight.

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