League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County

SEWRPC Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update for the Greater Milwaukee Watersheds
for Public Information Meetings/Public Hearings October 2007

Plan provides:

1. Recommendations to abate water pollution
   
2. Basis for local eligibility for Federal and State sewerage system loans and grants
   
3. Basis for issuance by WDNR of WI Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permits (WPDES)
   
4. Basis for public and private sanitary sewer extension approvals

   
   

   
   

• Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) 2%,
  
• Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) 7%,
  
• Rural Agricultural Runoff 34%,
  
• Urban Non-Agricultural Runoff 55%.

  
  

• Land Use Element,
  
• Surface Water Quality Element and
  
• a new Groundwater Management Plan element (not presented).

For the land use element the conveyance facilities are sized using year 2020 population and land use based on community-supplied information.
Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District (MMSD) regional storage and treatment facilities, sized using 2020 population and land use based on 2035 regional land use plan.
Preservation of identified primary environmental corridors and natural areas and critical species habitat sites through public interest ownership, state-local floodplain and shoreland wetland zoning, state rules on sanitary sewer extensions and local land use regulations.

For the Surface Water Quality Element the following are sought:

1. Urban and rural nonpoint source pollution abatement
   
2. Point source pollution abatement measures in areas outside the MMSD planning area
   
3. Includes MMSD 2020 Facilities Plan recommendations
   
4. Instream water quality measures
   
5. Inland lake measures
6. Other surface water quality measures

The Urban Runoff Control Plan includes full implementation of Chapter NR 151 rules, enhanced program to detect and eliminate illicit discharges to the stormwater management system and to control urban-sourced pathogens, fertilizer management (low phosphorus fertilizer), chloride reduction (roads and water softeners), green features such as rainbarrels, rain gardens, and stormwater trees, management of pet litter, marina waste, control of non-migratory waterfowl, litter control.

The Point Source Pollution Abatement Measures in Areas Outside the MMSD Planning Area include facilities planning for Cedarburg/Grafton, Caledonia, Fredonia, Jackson, Mt. Pleasant, Newburg, Racine, Raymond, Sturtevant, and Yorkville, as well as programs to maintain and operate facilities effectively.

The Instream Water Quality Measures include restoration of selected degraded stream channels, evaluation of MMSD Kinnickinnic River flushing station, develope dam abandonment and associated riverine restoration plans, design stream crossings to allow passage of aquatic organisms, and for fisheries protect remaining natural channels, minimize number of stream crossings and remove or retrofit obstructions to fish passage.

Other Surface Water Quality Measures include identify and address local sources of beach contamination, conduct household hazardous waste collection programs, conduct pharmaceutical and personal care product collection programs, and identify and address exotic invasive species in lakes and riverine areas.

Water quality monitoring recommendations include continue current MMSD, WDNR, and USGS monitoring programs, continue to upgrade citizen-based programs, modify or expand existing programs to include monitoring on tributaries, add fishery and macroinvertebrate monitoring at long-term stations, add habitat monitoring stations, standardize quality assurance and control and sampling protocols and analyses.

Plan also calls for studies of system capacities at Jones Island and South Shore, monitoring actual population and land use changes, evaluating the success of the recommended efforts to “hold the line” on INflow and Infiltration (I/I), continued efforts to improve and refine the MMSD real-time control strategy for the deep tunnel including the effect of upgraded pumping capacity from the tunnel to Jones Island, demonstration project for physical-chemical treatment at South Shore, continued study of blending at South Shore (methods to disinfect sewerage faster than current digestion method).

Cost Analysis: 2.7 billion, or 61.5 million annually mostly going to abate urban and rural run off pollution.

Ability of Recommended Plan to Meet Water Use Objectives and Water Quality Standards: Not 100% of the time, need to look at maps which provide estimated improvements in selected water quality parameters for streams and watersheds.

Implementation of Plan: Assignment of implementation responsibilities, apportion costs between public and private sectors estimated by community, information on grant funding programs. Possibly there will be an action plan for each watershed initiated by MMSD. Possibly watershed-based permits will be developed for WWTP (wastewater treatment plants), municipal separate storm sewer systems, and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Perhaps an expanded state cost-share funding and/or water quality credit trading could provide incentives to address unpermitted agricultural/rural nonpoint sources.

Next Steps: Adoption of plan by the Regional Planning Commission Dec. 2007, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) approval , US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) approval of plan., and endorsement of plan by counties and other local units of government.

For a copy of the entire plan see the SEWRPC site: Click Here

League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County
Comments on Plan

1. The Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update is a good structure for coordinating community efforts towards improving water quality using the Watershed Approach. Importantly MMSD and SEWRPC have developed much data so that efforts can be targeted towards real pollution sources.

   
   

2. It is unfortunate to allow CSOs or SSOs into our drinking water and recreational waters. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin was active in state implementation of the federally mandated Safe Drinking water amendments of 1986 and 1996 to clean up WI’s waters sufficiently to reach the federally mandated “swimmable, fishable waters” standard. We think that I/I should be aggressively reduced. Lets not just “hold the line” on I/I but reduce it. Service communities need to do their part in reducing excess rainwater coming into the sewerage collection system so that sewerage systems handle sewerage, not rainwater and, hopefully, CSOs and SSOs can be eliminated.

   
   

3. Communities need to be responsible for eliminating Illicit Discharges (human sewerage) into the storm water system which drains into rivers and Lake Michigan. We commend the effort, which allows us to distinguish between human waste and other waste in our storm water management system.

   
   

4. State funding is not adequate for inspections and grants to abate water pollution due to agricultural practices or urban runoff. In 2003 the League Women Voters of WI determined that the dedicated revenue sources for water quality programs were insufficient and proposed that new or reallocated funds should be combined with General Purpose Revenues to meet WI’s needs for management of its water resources.

   
   

5. Monitoring for viruses and parasites in streams and lakes should be required, not just for E. coli, oxygen, phosphorus, etc., although these parameters are also important indicators of water quality.

   
   

6. We have concerns about sewerage blending, which means disinfecting sewerage faster than normal way with perhaps chlorine. In the slower digestion method followed by drying, all biological entities are removed whether we test for them or not. Faster methods may not destroy all pathogens present. Further, in the case of chlorine, which evidently is subsequently removed, are other molecules chlorinated and then discharged with the water?

   
   Dr. Jennifer Runquist, Natural Resources (NR) Chair, LWVMC