Lee Bergquist

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The City of Milwaukee is starting a program estimated to cost $7 million over the next six years to disconnect downspouts in areas of the city affecting about 50,000 property owners.

The aim is to detach downspouts from homes and some apartments served by combined sanitary and storm sewers and keep as much rainwater as possible out of the sewer system.

The city sent letters to affected property owners in recent weeks saying it would start the disconnections later this year.

To those affected, the city says that in the first two years of the program it will provide contractors to do the work or compensate owners if they want to take it on themselves.

The program is mandated by regulations approved in 2014 by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to disconnect as many downspouts as possible within the combined system. With exceptions, downspouts that feed into the combined system will be prohibited beginning in 2025.

On days of heavy rainfall, a single downspout can send 12 gallons of water a minute into the system, MMSD says.

“There is a tremendous amount of water that doesn’t have to be there,” MMSD spokesman Bill Graffin said. “This will help sewer overflows and basement backups.”

When MMSD approved the regulations, the agency said downspout disconnections would be one of the tools to meet a goal of no combined sewer overflows by 2035.

The district reported six combined sewer overflows in 2018.

That equaled the record set in 1999 for the most in a year since the deep tunnel's first full year of operation in 1994. There has been an annual average of 2.36 combined sewer overflows a year since the tunnel was built.

In 2003, 2012 and 2017, there were no overflows.

Those affected must live in the combined sanitary and sewer area, which affects about one-third of the city.

Nader Jaber, who manages Milwaukee’s environmental engineering division, said that those affected will receive another letter in the coming months with more details of the program.

He outlined the general plans:

Eligible properties are homes and apartments of four units or less.

The city will hire contractors who will make disconnections. Property owners who want to do the work would receive $50 for one downspout, but no more than $100 for disconnecting additional downspouts. How the payments will be made have not yet been finalized, he said.

Jaber said that the city estimates that 55% of nearly 50,000 properties can have disconnections made.

Not all will be eligible. The city will not approve disconnections where water spills onto sidewalks, causes icy conditions, is too close to a foundation or a property line, or causes a nuisance to a neighbor.

The idea, he said, is to release water so it soaks into the ground.

After the first two years of the program, property owners would be responsible for the costs and work of cutting off downspouts.

About half of Shorewood is also included in the combined system. Shorewood is also developing a program to disconnect downspouts. In the meantime, residents can voluntarily make disconnections after receiving a permit from the village, according to a village official.