something smells in milwaukee

As a result of recent rains MMSD (metro milwaukee sewerage district) dumped over 4.6 billion (yes with a B) gallons of sewage into Lake Michigan during the month of may. This is after investing hundreds of millions in the "deep tunnel project". Basically this is an elaborate holding tank drilled into the rock deep below ground. Compounding all of this is Milwaukee's combined sewer lines that mix street runoff and real sewage. I dont know if this fits a conspiracy, but is sure is a cluster xxxxx.....

Here are some interesting links:
www.mmsd.com...
www.jsonline.com...
www.gmtoday.com...

Also of interest as noted in the last article above, why arent the environmentalist freaking out about this???

Oh and not all of the pumps on the deep tunnel are working either:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Looking out at the lake, there is a very large brown patch by Milwaukee. One just wonders if thats from dirt or...ikkkkk

this is the same lake that Milwaukee pumps its drinking water from btw...

Provo Utah smells very bad to..........in fact, I re named it 15 years ago and call it ~~ CatButt ~~ Utah.....due to the FACT that is smells like a cats butt in Provo.........(they dumped raw sewage in the nearbye lake for years, plus a big stinky steal mill operates there)
Oh ya.....and when I see a cat licking its bottom...I say "oh look at the kitty licking its Provo"


I just thought I would share that

I hope my esteemed fellow ATS'ers will join me in this name change......remember its ~CatButt ~now...not Provo.....
Thank you for your cooperation!

The sewage dumping continues. Every time its a new excuse:

www.jsonline.com...
www.jsonline.com...

These dumps have caused Chicago to repeatedly close many of its beaches. there have been a few days when all of the beaches on the north side have been closed due to this 'crap' being dumped into the lake.

that part im not so sure about. wouldnt other cities south of milwaukee between chicago and milwaukee be having the same problems?

not every city between chicago and milwaukee has beaches that are maintained by a municipality. Chicago's beaches are run as if they were parks, which means that they're tested and patrolled... and have several times the usage as some rough patch of sand outside of Hickashaw, Wisconsin.

Also, some beaches to the north of chicago (beaches maintained by welathy suburbs) have been shut down, too.

I went to college up in Milwaukee this past year and you're right the lake and local politics stink!

The main problem according to the MMSD is the massive ammount of rain that the area has gotten over the spring and summer (anyone in Milwaukee will remember the way it rained for three weeks straight in May)

The deep tunnel needs to be bolstered with more treatment plants, big ones too. Also the city is having trouble pumping water. Milwaukee has probably the safest water in the US, (thanks to the Crypto outbreak in the 90s) but there is currently only one pumping station working for Milwaukee County, I know because I lived by the working station. I got a letter from the city this past spring saying that the South Point pumping station was pretty much destroyed when a 10 foot diameter high pressure pipe burst. The result was werid fluctuations in water pressure all over the North Shore as the plant there increased output.

Also anyone notice that the growth on the Upper East Side and Brewers' Hill doesn't seem quite kosher? The same land developers are getting the deals and their competition has been squeezed out of the market for formerly city owned property.

I blame the outgoing mayor and the county, they've been pretty crooked over the years (pension scandal?) and I think a lot of the funding has gone to improving certain parts of the city and utilites have suffered.

Milwaukee is a decient sized city and yet it's held together by a transit and public utility system built when almost all of the suburbs were cow towns and the city was half its current size.

Something's gotta change up there, I got fed up enough that I moved to Chicago.

Oi
~Astral

it could be that chicago is creating its own pollution?

seems odd how the south side of milwaukee, and racine have qood qualities if it was flowing down to chicago...

infotrek.er.usgs.gov...!BEACHHEALTH_DATA.RPT_ADVISORY_PWS.show

You can't think of Lake Michagan as it's name implies. It's not as much a little lake as it is a major freshwater inland sea, complete with very complex currents and flows. Someone puts a can in the water in Milwaukee it doesn't just float back to you or across the lake, it could end up in Toronto or even somewhere in the ocean.

Chicago produces a lot of pollution too, and Gary produces so much that it skews the averages for every city on the lake! But when Milwaukee dumps, it doesn't just pour it in off the coast, there are pipes going up to a mile out for intakes and far but less so for output in order to make sure the beaches are as clean as possible and that the drinking water (which comes from the lake) is not tainted. Granted the water is also treated with everything short of molecular distilling to make it clean.

Weather or not it's possible for the dumps in Milwaukee are effecting the beaches in Chicago one would need to see the maps of the currents, which change based upon seasonal and other factors.

May Peace Travel With You
~Astral

hmmm it seems Chicago is just as much of an offender in dumping as Milwaukee.

Here is an article on it. Read it and weep:
www.jsonline.com...

Here's a nice graphic:
www.jsonline.com...

Its a wonder all of our water doesnt stink like (you know what). This is really a pretty widespread problem it seems.

Oh, here is a pretty gross picture of what it looks like in the lake:
graphics.jsonline.com...

[edit on 13-7-2004 by spangbr]