Milwaukee country residents...did your basement flood Saturday?

[HereSince1628]

Just curious. The SO's house here in Wauwatosa sits near the top of a hill on the city's north side. Her basement and basements up to the top of the hill did...not through cracks in the walls or floor, but through the drains. Apparently the city storm system flooded. We spent several hours lifting stuff up or out of the basement, as did all the neighbors.

We noticed the water level had stabilized about 6:15 which was about 20 minutes after MMSD quit taking water into the deep tunnel project (which is to say, about the time they let water flow into the rivers and streams). Yesterday, despite a lot of rain on saturated soil-and not falling at a rate of 9 inches an hour...no sign of more basement flooding. Which made me wonder how much of this problem was exacerbated by the operation of MMSD's deep tunnel?

I don't really understand how the MMSD operates the tunnel, but I am wondering if they have a protocol that waits until flooding is happening, or if they begin diversions in anticipation of overwhelming the system. Anyone know?




SUNDAY, June 8, 2008, 11:51 a.m.
By Don Behm

MMSD blending at Jones Island
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District expects sewer overflows to continue today as it braces for more heavy rains.

After Saturday's deluge - measured at 6.5 inches at Elm Grove, 5.7 inches on Milwaukee's northwest side, and 5.5 inches at Oak Creek -- district officials used each of its three emergency measures Saturday to prevent widespread sewer backups in basements or discharges to streets, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer said this morning.

Gates connecting combined sewers in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood to the deep tunnel storage system were closed beginning at 5:55 p.m. Saturday. The closing gates resulted in sewer overflows in those two areas to the city's rivers and Lake Michigan.

But the tunnel continued to fill quickly with extreme flows from separate sanitary sewers in the remainder of the district's service area, Shafer said. He ordered gates between the sanitary sewers and the deep tunnels closed beginning at 8:15 p.m., he said.

A third step was taken at 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Shafer ordered blending of wastewater flows at the Jones Island treatment plant. Blending of partly treated sewage with fully treated wastewater is done to boost the amount that can be pushed through Jones Island, preventing flooding of treatment basins there and allowing some wastewater to be pumped out of the deep tunnel.

The district is allowed to discharge up to 60 million gallons of blended wastewater to Lake Michigan in a 24-hour period during such extreme rain storms. Around 10:30 a.m. today, Jones Island operators were blending at a rate of 40 million gallons a day, Shafer said.

If Milwaukee County escapes heavy rain Sunday, Shafer said he is optimistic that the district can begin re-opening gates from separate sanitary sewers to the deep tunnel, a step that would end sanitary sewer overflows to the waterways. Combined sewer overflows in a small portion of the service area probably will continue into Monday, however.