KENOSHA, Wis. — Just days after city officials reported a sewer bypass near 89th Street and 17th Avenue, the Kenosha Water Utility says it was forced to divert diluted wastewater into Lake Michigan again following additional heavy rainfall.
According to the utility, the latest bypasses began at 10:40 p.m. Friday and continued until 7 a.m. Saturday. Officials said the city had received 4.38 inches of rain between April 14 and April 17, falling on ground that was already saturated from earlier storms this month.
This time, diluted wastewater was discharged into the storm sewer system and Lake Michigan from three separate locations: 89th Street and 17th Avenue, 67th Street and 57th Avenue, and the Third Avenue overflow structure.
The latest incident comes less than a week after the city disclosed a previous bypass at 89th Street and 17th Avenue that occurred April 15.
These types of sewer bypasses can happen when stormwater overwhelms aging sanitary sewer systems through cracked pipes, leaking joints, sump pump connections, or other sources of infiltration. Utilities often say the alternative can be sewage backing up into basements and homes.
Still, repeated bypasses into Lake Michigan are likely to draw additional scrutiny from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which typically reviews whether utilities followed required procedures and whether the overflows could have been prevented.
The Kenosha Water Utility said all bypasses are reported to the DNR.
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10 Responses
In plain-speak, does this mean that untreated excrement was dumped into the lake?
It always is. Its cheaper to pay the fine in Chicago and milwaukee than to do it the right way. We live in the nastiest part of lake Michigan.
Bad news is yes. The good news is it is highly diluted. Typically overflows are higher up in the sewer so the theory is the solids (excrement) would be lower in the sewer due to sinking and less polluted clear water drains out from the top. Doesn’t always happen this way but it is typically “cleaner” than pure sewage.
Yeppers! Let’s go fishing for crap………I mean crappie 😆 💩
Still, repeated bypasses into Lake Michigan are likely to draw additional scrutiny from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which typically reviews whether utilities followed required procedures and whether the overflows could have been prevented. There will not be any investigation. Lake Michigan is a huge toilet
It’s better than the nuclear waste from the old power plant in Zion.
good, better than the old system of backing up into basements
Yes, I work for the DNR as a wastewater engineer. This means that raw domestic sewage (e.g. toilet waste) was released into the lake instead of being treated at the sewage treatment facility. The holes and cracks in the sewers allowed so much rain into the sewers that they opened the gates, letting the wastewater out into the lake, rather than having it back up into people’s basements.
Here comes the Poop Patrol
I’d prefer it in the lake than in my basement. Id imagine it dissipates so quickly anyway, what’s the difference. If I step in my dogs poo while mowing the lawn I don’t declare an emergency, I clean the shoe (as I complain haha). Although I don’t know if a bunch of heated water from a data center being dumped in to the lake with poo particulate would be a good thing.