Milwaukee has recently come in at the bottom of reports on workforce development and health. But when it comes to dumping untreated sewage into Lake Michigan, the city is slightly above average.

Milwaukee received a C-plus in environmental group Sierra Legal Defence Fund's first-ever Great Lakes Sewage Report Card, released Wednesday.,”

Milwaukee has recently come in at the bottom of reports on workforce development and health. But when it comes to dumping untreated sewage into Lake Michigan, the city is slightly above average.

Milwaukee received a C+ in the Sierra Legal Defence Fund's inaugural Great Lakes Sewage Report Card, released Wednesday.

The Canadian-based environmental group analyzed waste treatment and sewage dumping information in 20 U.S. and Canadian cities in the Great Lakes basin.

The report said Milwaukee releases around 1 billion gallons of untreated water into Lake Michigan each year.

Of the eight U.S. cities in the report, Milwaukee was ranked in the bottom three. Only Syracuse, N.Y. (with a C-) and Detroit (with a D) received lower grades. Chicago was left out of the report because the city dumps its treated wastewater into the Mississippi River system. But if included, Chicago would have received a B-.

Bruce Baker, deputy administrator for the water division of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the best grade of B+ is "pretty good" since no city is required by law to have very advanced water treatment plants.

"I think the report accurately reflects where those cities are with respect to one another," Baker said.

Bill Graffin, spokesman for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, also said he was pleased with the results, but admitted Milwaukee needs to work harder at preventing overflows.

According to Graffin, wastewater created by the city is treated in four stages at one of two treatment plants and is released back into Lake Michigan. When it rains heavily, the sewers may get too full and untreated sewer water may end up in the lake. Graffin said this overflow is better than letting the water backup into Milwaukee homes.

"We have some work ahead of us," Graffin said. "Are we the best? No. But are we the worst? No."

Graffin said while overflow cannot be completely prevented, MMSD is spending $50 million to analyze 64 years of rainfall patterns in an attempt to create a long-range plan that would cut down on overflow.

"We're sizing something based on old data," Graffin said. "We're using what we have at our fingertips but you can't predict the future as far as rainfall."

Graffin also said that another $1 million is being spent on an overflow reduction plan to build more deep tunnels to hold overflow water.

But just building more overflow containers is not enough, according to John A. Andersen, Jr., Great Lakes program director for The Nature Conservancy, a conservation organization. He said overflow stems from the environment's inability to filter out waste naturally.

"When you replace natural landscaping, you lose the ability for the land to absorb and retain water," Andersen said. "Billions of dollars are invested to temporarily store water. If they'd restore the natural landscape, it would be a low-cost and effective solution to overflow."

Baker put it more simply.

"We basically need to work on making sure everything gets to the plant and gets fully treated," he said.

"Some communities need more attention than they're getting. Maybe with these results, the public will pay attention."

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