From jsonline: "Combined sanitary and storm sewers in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood released an estimated 23.6 million gallons of a mix of sewage and storm water to local rivers and Lake Michigan after Tuesday afternoon's intense rain storm, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Executive Director Kevin Shafer said Friday."
http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/96684594.html
So, the MMSD dropped a bunch of raw sewage, including raw poop and other assorted materials that are flushed down the toilet and untreated storm water into local rivers and Lake Michigan.
To put that in perspective, in a course of a couple of hours, that comes out to 561,905 barrels of sewage and untreated storm water that has entered the waterways. This is the equivalent of over 16 days of oil being dumped into the gulf by the oil spill.
Where are the environmentalists?
Sunrise — 6:54, 6:55.
7 hours ago
While it is never good when MMSD dumps raw sewage into Lake Michigan, keep in mind that sewage, unlike oil, is quickly biodegradable. Therefore, the environmental impact is far less than that of the Gulf oil spill.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the sewage is greatly diluted by that stormwater, so you are overestimating the volume of pollution. You are confusing "untreated stormwater" with untreated wastewater. Most municipalities do not treat stormwater; they have separate storm sewers that do not go through the sewage treatment plant, so "untreated stormwater" is redundant. Milwaukee's antiquated combined storm-and-wastewater sewer system is unusual for a major city.
I understand that and that is MMSD's arguement, but it still sucks that you are going to have poop logs, no matter how many, are still going to be floating down the river into the lake.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is a small release by MMSD. They have release upwards of a billin gallons at one time. Further, the deep tunnel was supposed to be for the 100 year storm. Apparently the Milwaukee area gets 100 year storms every few years.
I know that what MMSD is dumping is not as bad as oil, but it still beg the questio, where are the enviromentalists.