Walker's Point residents to get relief from foul odors after sewerage district opts for Jones Island filters

Residents of bustling Walker's Point on Milwaukee's near south side will soon get relief from the acrid smells that permeate the neighborhood.

A long-abandoned sludge odor control system at the Jones Island sewage treatment plant will be restarted this year in response to continuing complaints of unpleasant odors from nearby neighborhood residents, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District officials said.

The carbon filter designed for capturing odors from a pair of sludge blending tanks has not been used since the system failed in 2002, project manager Cary Solberg said.

Now, odor inside each of the 36-foot-tall tanks is vented to the outside air through an open hatch. The tanks are located adjacent to the Milorganite sludge fertilizer factory, a few hundred feet west of the Hoan Bridge.

The tanks blend sludge from the Jones Island and South Shore sewage treatment plants to ensure the desired consistency and nutrient balance before it is heat-dried to make Milorganite fertilizer, Solberg said.

One reason for not repairing the filter in 2002 was that the district did not receive odor complaints immediately after the system was shut down, officials said. In that incident, sludge leaked into a pipe carrying odorous air out of one tank and the load flowed into the filter housing.

The MMSD commission's policy committee on Monday will discuss the proposed repair and restart of the odor filter. Cost of restoring the system is estimated at $337,750, according to a project summary distributed to commissioners.

The tanks "are one of several odor sources that may contribute to neighborhood odor complaints," the document says. Restoring the odor filter system is described as "a cost-effective solution to mitigate one known odor source."

RELATED: Walker's Point residents complain of sewage odors from Jones Island

Among other sources of odors at Jones Island: eight uncovered circular basins used for primary treatment of sewage; and a pile of leaves and other debris from cleaning of catch basins in municipal storm sewer drains.

Catch basin debris is mixed with dust and other residues from Milorganite fertilizer production prior to disposal at a landfill. The debris is stored uncovered within concrete walls directly beneath the Hoan Bridge.

It would cost MMSD and property taxpayers in its regional service area an estimated $19.5 million to cover the eight primary treatment basins west of the Hoan Bridge, said MMSD contract compliance manager Patrick Obenauf. Those covers are being considered as part a 2050 facilities plan being prepared by a district consultant.

"The ultimate solution is to cap those basins fully," Walker's Point neighborhood resident Alpha Jalloh said.

Neighborhood residents call MMSD when foul-smelling odors drift west from Jones Island into the city, Jalloh said. Jalloh is co-chair of the Walker's Point Association's residents committee.

Monthly committee meetings provide a forum to discuss problems and sewage plant smells have joined a shortage of parking among recurring issues in the last year, according to Jalloh.

Obenauf and other MMSD staff are scheduled to attend the group's May meeting to update residents on what the district has been doing to address their complaints, Jalloh said. Jalloh was not aware of the project to restart the odor filter on the sludge blending tanks until he was contacted by a reporter, he said.

Jalloh said neighborhood complaints along with the city's recently approved water and land use plan for the 1,000-acre Harbor District east of S. 1st St. — a large slice of Walker's Point immediately west of Jones Island — prodded MMSD officials to act. Possible developments in the Harbor District include housing, office and retail buildings, a waterfront park and an extension of the downtown RiverWalk.

Walker's Point already is known as a fast-growing, walkable and bikeable neighborhood that draws people outdoors.

"You don't want all the new residents strolling on the RiverWalk and smelling those obnoxious odors," Jalloh said. The city's Harbor District plan identifies the Jones Island plant as a source of odors and recommends the city "explore options to reduce odors" from Jones Island, manufacturers and other sources.

The Walker's Point neighborhood generally extends from the Menomonee River, Menomonee Canal and Milwaukee River on the north to Mitchell St. on the south. S. 10th St. is the west boundary. The Kinnickinnic and Milwaukee rivers form the east boundary.

The sprawling sewage treatment plant and Milorganite fertilizer factory are located on the north end of Jones Island in the Milwaukee harbor. Sewage has been treated there and Milorganite has been produced there since the 1920s.

Both the Jones Island plant and the South Shore sewage treatment plant in Oak Creek were expanded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of a $3 billion water pollution control project. A new Milorganite factory and the deep tunnel wastewater storage system were constructed at that time.