The private company running the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District‘s (MMSD) wastewater treatment facilities is allegedly cutting costs and poorly operating critical sewage systems, creating greater risk of sewer overflows and basement backups, and increasing pollutants dumped into Lake Michigan.
The charges come from Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin, a coalition of more than 46 community organizations, including area schools, nonprofit neighborhood groups and businesses.
The coalition is working with a whistleblower from MMSD and calling for a third-party audit of the operator, Veolia, before a new contract is awarded later this year.
Along with the whistleblower, Common Ground reports it has interviewed more than a dozen former MMSD employees and obtained internal documents through open records requests.
Veolia, a French transnational water services corporation, has held the contract to operate and maintain MMSD’s two wastewater treatment facilities since 2008.
Common Ground alleges Veolia is purposely running wastewater systems below capacity during rain events, increasing the risk of sewer overflows into Lake Michigan and backups into basements across the region. The coalition alleges the company has forgone maintenance to save money, instead allowing equipment to run to a point of failure and be replaced by MMSD.
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