Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Environmental Groups Blast Waukesha's Great Lakes Diversion, Return Flow Plan

A coalition of Wisconsin environmental groups tells Milwaukee Magazine's Buzz that Waukesha's plan to dump wastewater into Underwood Creek poses real pollutant risk to the Creek.


Details here.

And pay careful attention to the pollutant increases that could be added to the Creek if Waukesha is allowed to dump its wastewater treated to the same levels as is currently permitted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for wastewater Waukesha sends into the Fox River.

Says the Buzz:

"The Coalition says the discharge, if identical to the treated wastewater Waukesha releases into the Fox River, would contain 20-30 times more fecal coliform bacteria, which serves as an indicator of disease-causing bacteria, than what’s typically found in Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District discharge – and more than nine times the maximum legal limits for the bacterium.

"The environmental groups also say they would expect Waukesha to remove mercury and chloride from the water. The city has variances that allow its discharge to contain normally prohibited levels of the chemicals."


What would possess Wauwatosa or Milwaukee downstream to accept those loads?

This blog has often reported on Waukesha's diversion and return flow planning problems, and noted the ongoing delay in Waukesha's forwarding the diversion and return flow plan to the DNR for review.

You will also see that in this post's comments, Waukesha's contract lobbyist and public relations consultant objects to the characterization of Underwood Creek as "Waukesha's toilet" - - a paraphrase of Racine State Rep. Cory Mason's defense of the Root River with regard to one wastewater flushing regime discarded by Waukesha in favor of Underwood Creek.

Well, maybe "chemical tailing pond" is a better description of what could become of Underwood Creek.

Waukesha has said the forwarding delay is due to minor changes that are not required to be resubmitted to the Common Council for examination and a new vote.

It would be good to learn that changes are meant to deal with the very pollution issues raised by the coalition.

3 comments:

Dave Reid said...

I find it interesting they have been saying it would be "treated" wastewater, but apparently Waukesha's "treated" isn't so clean. At a bare minimum that has to be fixed before this thing goes anywhere.

James Rowen said...

These groups have been saying for some time that they are not opposed to Waukesha getting water, but want it done in the right way.

There has been a dearth of reporting in the mainstream media about the details of the application: maybe this item in MM's Buzz is a first step?

Dave Reid said...

Could be. It seems to me the MM Buzz is really covering a lot of stuff that the js doesn't. Basically my turf! @ UrbanMilwaukee.com, which is actually great as they seem to be doing an good job.