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Sewage overflows, power failures remain after storm
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.
Some of the overflow has been backing into the basements of area residents. City of Milwaukee operators have received 133 calls from residents with water backing into their basements by 9 a.m., many of them from residents with sanitary overflow, a city spokeswoman said.
The sewer backups, street flooding, downed trees and power failures are among the effects of storms that drenched Milwaukee early Thursday.
Rain Harris, who lives on the 1900 block of N. 25th St., was dealing with the results Thursday morning - a sewage backup in her basement for the third straight summer. She and her neighbors say they are fed up with the backups.
"It's disgusting and nasty, and we're sick of it," Harris said.
Harris estimated that at least five homes on the street each had a few feet of sewage backup in their basements.
Harris said she and her neighbors would be marching to City Hall later Thursday to complain about the problem.
Thunderstorms that dropped more than 4 inches of rain throughout the metropolitan area Thursday morning filled the main deep tunnels to 98.6% of their 432 million gallon capacity by 9 a.m.
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.
Milwaukee Department of Public Works spokeswoman Cecilia Gilbert said 20 city workers in two-person crews and four investigators were responding to the sewer backing calls and to 60 calls about surface water ponding.
In addition, the city has received 42 reports of manhole covers being blown off by pressure from the rushing water.
Crews also have vacuumed standing water from several major intersections, including N. 35th St. and W. Capitol Drive, N. 60th St. and W. Mill Road and W. Juneau Ave. and N. King Drive, Gilbert said.
In Shorewood, about a dozen people called the village with flooding in their basements. Bayside has scattered street flooding and one complaint of a flooded basement.
In Waukesha County, crews closed a portion of County Trunk Highway M between County Trunk Highway F and Highway 164 because of flooding. They're rerouting drivers to northbound highway F to Capitol Drive, then west to Highway 164 where they can reconnect to highway M.
Meanwhile, as many as 13,000 We Energies customers lost power at some point during the storm and about 10,000 customers were out at the peak, company spokesman Brian Manthey said. That number had dropped to about 2,400 customers by noon, Manthey said.
Crews restored power to about 2,000 of those customers in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood just before noon. Another 1,200 Milwaukee customers remained without power throughout the city.
There were power failures in Fox Point and West Allis. About 600 customers didn't have power in Washington County and 250 were without electricity in Waukesha.
Many of the outages are reportedly from single lines, so it might take some time to restore them, Manthey said.
Wisconsin Public Service reported that, as of 7 a.m., approximately 3,900 customers were still without power in the communities of Wabeno, Rhinelander, Green Bay, Stevens Point and Oshkosh.
At the height of the storm, more than 29,000 of their customers were without power.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/98510709.html
Some of the overflow has been backing into the basements of area residents. City of Milwaukee operators have received 133 calls from residents with water backing into their basements by 9 a.m., many of them from residents with sanitary overflow, a city spokeswoman said.
The sewer backups, street flooding, downed trees and power failures are among the effects of storms that drenched Milwaukee early Thursday.
Rain Harris, who lives on the 1900 block of N. 25th St., was dealing with the results Thursday morning - a sewage backup in her basement for the third straight summer. She and her neighbors say they are fed up with the backups.
"It's disgusting and nasty, and we're sick of it," Harris said.
Harris estimated that at least five homes on the street each had a few feet of sewage backup in their basements.
Harris said she and her neighbors would be marching to City Hall later Thursday to complain about the problem.
Thunderstorms that dropped more than 4 inches of rain throughout the metropolitan area Thursday morning filled the main deep tunnels to 98.6% of their 432 million gallon capacity by 9 a.m.
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.
Milwaukee Department of Public Works spokeswoman Cecilia Gilbert said 20 city workers in two-person crews and four investigators were responding to the sewer backing calls and to 60 calls about surface water ponding.
In addition, the city has received 42 reports of manhole covers being blown off by pressure from the rushing water.
Crews also have vacuumed standing water from several major intersections, including N. 35th St. and W. Capitol Drive, N. 60th St. and W. Mill Road and W. Juneau Ave. and N. King Drive, Gilbert said.
In Shorewood, about a dozen people called the village with flooding in their basements. Bayside has scattered street flooding and one complaint of a flooded basement.
In Waukesha County, crews closed a portion of County Trunk Highway M between County Trunk Highway F and Highway 164 because of flooding. They're rerouting drivers to northbound highway F to Capitol Drive, then west to Highway 164 where they can reconnect to highway M.
Meanwhile, as many as 13,000 We Energies customers lost power at some point during the storm and about 10,000 customers were out at the peak, company spokesman Brian Manthey said. That number had dropped to about 2,400 customers by noon, Manthey said.
Crews restored power to about 2,000 of those customers in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood just before noon. Another 1,200 Milwaukee customers remained without power throughout the city.
There were power failures in Fox Point and West Allis. About 600 customers didn't have power in Washington County and 250 were without electricity in Waukesha.
Many of the outages are reportedly from single lines, so it might take some time to restore them, Manthey said.
Wisconsin Public Service reported that, as of 7 a.m., approximately 3,900 customers were still without power in the communities of Wabeno, Rhinelander, Green Bay, Stevens Point and Oshkosh.
At the height of the storm, more than 29,000 of their customers were without power.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/98510709.html
EW, I cannot imagine. Yep, I agree with Barb, this is a potentially dangerous situation/
These people with sewage back up in their basements, need to be calling EPA - these events would be definite health threats and in violation of current waste water treatment standards...........
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