Flooding in Milwaukee in August and again in April has caused all sorts of headaches for residents, prompting questions about future flooding in the area. The repeated flooding of many Milwaukee homes and streets has drawn criticism over the city’s preparedness, response to and ability to handle extreme weather.
Several Milwaukee County supervisors echoed calls for a third-party audit of the company Veolia, which manages wastewater treatment facilities for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
In a statement released Monday, eight supervisors said Veolia’s management of treatment facilities needs to be scrutinized before MMSD moves forward with a proposed contract extension.
Meranda Davis, who lives on the North Side, remains unimpressed with local efforts to address flooding and help residents.
“I got some food stamps – that’s it,” Davis said. “I had to lose a lot of my stuff in my basement because it was soaking wet and moldy.”
Public works officials say it is often less about system failure than system capacity.
‘Sewers did not fail’
Much of the attention has been toward the city’s sewer system, as videos and firsthand accounts from residents showed people scrambling to clean and in some cases remove the lids of city sewers as waters rose and rain pounded around them.
But according to Tiffany Shepherd, marketing and communications officer for the Milwaukee Department of Public Works, “The sewer system did not fail.” However, she said, “These systems have limits to how much water they can handle.”
City sewers date back to the 1860s, with the oldest remaining sewer on record from the 1880s, Shepherd said.
Residents, city planners and local leaders all play a role in reducing the risk of future flooding, said Bill Graffin, public information manager for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
“We need everybody’s help,” Graffin said.
Different sewer systems
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, or MMSD, serves 29 municipalities across the region, including the City of Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs.
Each municipality operates its own sewer systems, while MMSD manages a deeper, regional network of large pipes.
Throughout the municipalities, there are two main types of sewer systems: separate and combined.
The most common is the separate system, which carries stormwater and sewage in different pipes.
In separate systems, water enters street drains, flows through storm sewers and discharges into local waterways. Wastewater from homes and businesses travel through private laterals into municipal sewers, then flows to MMSD’s regional system and on to one of two treatment facilities.
In other areas – primarily in about one-third of the city and parts of Shorewood – combined sewer systems are used.
Combined sewer systems carry both stormwater and sewage in a single pipe. In these areas, street drains and catch basins feed into the same network that also carries wastewater from homes and businesses. That combined flow then moves to MMSD’s regional system and, under normal conditions, to treatment facilities.
Flood risks
Graffin said it is important to distinguish between different types of flooding.
When MMSD refers to flooding, it is often talking about rivers overflowing their banks during major storms. That type of flooding is driven by the overall volume of rainfall.
Street flooding is closely tied to storm sewer capacity.
It occurs when sewers cannot handle the volume of rain or when drains are clogged – something that can happen in both separate and combined systems, especially during intense, short bursts of rainfall.
When water collects in streets and low-lying areas, it can enter homes through foundations, basement windows or failed sump pumps.
Basement backups are a related but distinct problem.
Water can back up through plumbing systems when wastewater cannot move through pipes fast enough, often because of capacity limits in local or regional systems, according to Graffin.
But blockages can occur for various reasons in private sewer laterals and lead to backups – and this can happen for various reasons unrelated to rainfall.
To help prevent widespread backups, MMSD’s system includes overflow points that release excess water into nearby rivers.
“An overflow is a relief valve,” Graffin said.
Davis said she experienced both types of flooding in April. Water flooded in from a plumbing backup and also into her basement from the street.
Common Ground launched the campaign calling for a third-party audit of Veolia, the company that has managed Milwaukee water treatment facilities for nearly 20 years.
The campaign originated from a whistleblower named Steve Jacquart, a former MMSD intergovernmental coordinator. Jacquart provided public testimony on April 30 alleging long-running operational and maintenance problems with the water treatment facilities.
These problems, he said, reduced treatment capacity, resulting in an increased risk of sewer overflows and basement backups during storms.
Another former Veolia employee came forward Wednesday, May 13, alleging serious problems at the company.
MMSD is currently considering renewing a new contract with Veolia. In response to Jacquart’s allegations, MMSD Chair Corey Zetts said: “Commissioners discuss monthly reports on performance and maintenance metrics in our monthly public meetings, and if there was any credible evidence of mismanagement of billions of dollars of our public infrastructure, the company would not be on the short list for another 10-year contract.”
‘Some heavier storms’
Officials say these systems were not designed for the storms that are becoming more common.
“There’s no question that we’re starting to see some heavier storms move through,” Graffin said.
When large amounts of rain fall in a short period of time, storm sewers can struggle to keep up, overwhelming system capacity and allowing water to pool in streets and low-lying areas.
Additionally, flood risk from overflowing waterways may be far greater than official maps indicate.
“One of the major lessons from recent events is that serious flooding can occur well outside areas traditionally understood as high-risk floodplains,” said Cassandra Libal, executive director of the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management.
In the Kinnickinnic River watershed, for example, estimates of homes in the floodplain increased from about 60 to 660 when updated rainfall data was used, Graffin said.
The changes have not been formally adopted because updating federal flood maps requires an approval process.
Libal said planning for future flooding cannot wait.
“(Federal Emergency Management Administration) maps remain important for regulatory and insurance purposes, but emergency management planning cannot rely exclusively on map updates that may take years to complete,” she said.
What is being done?
Flood risk reduction will depend on coordination across agencies, Libal said.
“Flood risk reduction is a shared responsibility because watersheds and storm impacts do not follow jurisdictional boundaries,” she said.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer have formed a regional Flood Mitigation Task Force to coordinate a response.
MMSD has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on flood control and identified projects totaling about $900 million, Shafer said in a joint statement announcing the task force.
But there are limits to what these new projects can accomplish.
“The reality is that we (or any city) simply cannot build a sewer system that could contain every storm event,” Shepherd said.
One important current strategy, officials say, is expanding everyone’s ability to manage water where it falls.
Since 2011, the city has constructed more than 500 installations of green infrastructure and added over 36 million gallons of storage since 2019, Shepherd said.
Individuals can also play their part.
“We encourage residents and businesses to capture as much stormwater runoff as they can on their properties,” Shepherd said.
Residents can help by using rain barrels, rain gardens and porous concrete, Graffin said.
A rain barrel may “seem like a small token, but it’s 55 gallons of water that we keep out of the sewers when we need that extra capacity,” he said.
The city had also planned on requiring residents to bag leaves instead of raking them into streets to help reduce clogged storm drains.
The policy was adjusted after major pushback. Residents will now have the option to bag their leaves or rake them to the street.
Davis doesn’t take much comfort from what she’s heard from local officials.
“They are really not it,” she said. “I need help now.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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