EPA Orders Brookfield to Spend Millions on Sewer Fixes

A federal agency is ordering the City of Brookfield to make millions of dollars in sewer fixes by 2016 to address overflows of untreated sewage and storm water or face penalties.

The Environmental Protection Agency sent the city an administrative consent order late Tuesday — which aldermen approved without comment Tuesday night after meeting in closed session with outside legal counsel.

City Public Works Director Tom Grisa said in an interview that while the cost of the mandate is yet unknown, it will be in the millions of dollars and could result in increased sewer rates to fund the unbudgeted work.

The city also likely will have to step up efforts to inspect private sewer laterals, sump pumps and systems to ensure there are not leaks or illegal hookups — a program Brookfield already has begun in its southeastern area, Grisa said.

If the city finds private repairs needed, it will pay from half to the full cost, depending on the specific problem, he added. But if there is an illegal system that needs to be corrected, it will be the homeowner's full responsibility.

The EPA order says Brookfield diverted untreated sewage and storm water into local waterways 46 times between January 2004 and Feb. 28, 2011. A total of 6,461,910 gallons in seven years was diverted to tributaries leading to the Fox River or Lake Michigan.

But Grisa said the city has invested heavily in improving its sewer system and preventing storm water from entering and filling it, preventing additional overflows. The overflows are done to avoid greater numbers of basement backups.

"We have spent tens of millions of dollars in the last decade on stormwater and flood control improvements and sanitary sewer improvements," he said. "The vast majority (of sewer system overflows) occurred in these 100-year storms and even 50-year storms.

"These are freaks — these are extreme storm events that no community would be able to handle," Grisa said.

Brookfield already spends about $600,000 a year on sanitary sewer work, he said. While the full cost of the new work required is not yet known — one city leader said it could easily be $3 million to $5 million, Grisa said, "It's going to be significant. It'll be a challenge. We'll see where we go."

The EPA did not issue similar orders to other municipalities served by the regional sewer treatment plant that Brookfield operates, although some have also had repeated overflows.

Brookfield was targeted because it operates the plant located in the city, called the Fox River Water Pollution Control Center, Grisa said. The western half of the city's sewage is treated by that plant, while sewage on the east side of Brookfield goes to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sanitary District plant.

After focusing for years on major metropolitan sewer treatment plants like the MMSD, the EPA is becoming more aggressive about enforcing sewer overflows and leaky sanitary sewer systems in communities served by smaller treatment plants such as the one in Brookfield, Grisa said.

Plants in Janesville and Oshkosh also are being ordered by the EPA to make upgrades, he said. Waukesha has had some changes ordered through its sewer treatment permit, he added.

According to the EPA order, Brookfield's work must be completed by Dec. 31, 2015. There are various interim deadlines, including a plan outlining costs and work to be filed by February.

The goal of that plan, the order says, "is to identify sources and estimate quantities of clear water I/I (infiltration and inflow) into (Brookfield's) sanitary sewer system." The city also must reduce clear water from entering its sewer system "to the maximum extent practicable" and "mitigate the impact of excessive I/I on (sanitary sewer overflows) and basement backups."

Brookfield also must submit a plan to eliminate overflows from two emergency pump stations at Brookfield Road and at Cardinal Crest (N. 124th Street and Robinwood).

The EPA initially sent Brookfield a warning about its sewer overflows in April 2009, asking for information and inspecting the city's system in August 2009 with a representative from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and two city officials.

On Feb 28, the EPA again met with the city and sought follow-up information. An initial order was filed in May, but the EPA agreed to further negotiate some changes in the consent order's timetable of expected action. The result of the negotiation, which Grisa said did not reduce the action required but gave the city more time to do it, was the order sent by the EPA's Chicago region and approved by the city Tuesday.