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Milwaukee's Bradford Beach
- Subject: Milwaukee's Bradford Beach
- From: Richard L Whitman <rwhitman@usgs.gov>
- Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 15:34:46 -0600
- Delivered-to: beachnet-archive@glc.org
- Delivered-to: beachnet@great-lakes.net
Richard Whitman
Chief, Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station
219-926-8336 Ext. 424
1100 North Mineral Springs Road
Porter, IN 46304
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
----- Forwarded by Richard L Whitman/BRD/USGS/DOI on 01/04/2005 03:34 PM
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Subject: Milwaukee's Bradford Beach
Milwaukee Insight: Run-off from County-owned Pipes Spoiling Bradford Beach
1/3/2005
http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=29071
By James Rowen
MILWAUKEE -- Researchers looking for the cause of pollution responsible for
closing Milwaukee's Bradford Beach in the spring and summer of '04 have
identified one ironic leading contributor to the contamination:
Milwaukee County government itself, just-revealed documents and scientific
findings show.
Contamination is reaching the Bradford Beach sand and water through five
large sewer pipe openings known as "outfalls," which are owned by Milwaukee
County. Topped with circular, protective concrete covers about 5 feet in
diameter, the outfalls are located at the top of Bradford Beach and east of
the Lincoln Memorial Drive sidewalk closest to a part of the lakeshore
described on the county parks' Web site as "Milwaukee's most popular beach
for swimming and sunbathing."
There are outfalls near both the north and south sides of the main
gathering spot at the Bradford Beach bathhouse. Frequently-used sand
volleyball courts and sunning areas are also close to outfalls, as are
wading and swimming spots.
Though beach closings and Lake Michigan's water quality have been widely
covered in the news media, the possible contributing role played by
Milwaukee County-owned sewer outfalls hasn't been part of the public
discussion. It has, however, been known to academics and government
officials.
The county's sewer outfalls have long been located at the beach, according
to Greg High, an administrator with the County Department of Parks and
Public Infrastructure.
High said that during rainstorms, storm water takes various paths before
emptying into Lake Michigan through the Bradford Beach outfalls. He said
water runs down the Lake Park bluffs, off parkland west of Lincoln Memorial
Drive, and across the roadway before emerging through the outfalls.
But because of the outfalls' locations -- and because of how rainwater
becomes polluted -- the outfalls spew contaminated water directly across
this premier sandy beach and into Lake Michigan water, according to
scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes Wisconsin
Aquatic Technology and Environmental Research Institute.
The WATER Institute's researchers have been taking water samples and
tracing E. coli bacteria contamination since 2003 and are working with
several units of government, including the county, to identify pollution
sources and reduce contamination. They have discovered that the county
pipes are contaminating Bradford Beach.
"We have found the one major source of contamination, if not the primary
source, is the stormwater discharged from outfalls above the beach area,"
said Institute Assistant Scientist Sandra L. McLellan, in a Sept. 3, 2004
memo to the city of Milwaukee Budget Office.
The WATER Institute, partnering with the city of Milwaukee's Health
Department and county government, has documented how quickly and severely
the outfalls put dangerous contamination onto Bradford Beach, records show.
Within one hour of a June 2004 rainstorm, levels of the bacteria E. coli, a
health hazard found in feces, had jumped at Bradford Beach to more than 67
times the level above which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says
makes for unsafe swimming, McLellan wrote.
"The spatial distribution of the E. coli across the beach matches the path
the outfall water runs before it drains to Lake Michigan," McLellan wrote.
"The water from the outfall cuts a path across the sand, in the area where
children play, before it enters Lake Michigan. Therefore, even though water
quality advisories are issued, the beach area itself may be a health
concern.''
E. coli can live in the sand; when it reaches colder water beyond the
swimming beach, E. coli dies.
The institute's Web site contained this description of how rainwater can
turn into such a pollutant:
"Water that enters storm drains is not 'treated' before it empties into a
stream, river, or lake. This means that when it rains, oil, antifreeze,
paint, grass clippings, household waste, pet waste, and any other debris on
our streets and sidewalks flows directly into our nearby surface waters,"
says the description.
High, of the county's parks and infrastructure department, said the county
was using the institute's findings and other means to help "backtrack" and
find potential E. coli sources in Lake Park. He said those sources could
include sanitary sewage infiltration, pet and wild animal waste, gull
droppings and the possible leakage into the storm sewers of human fecal
matter from county toilets in parks buildings.
He said more data would be collected to pinpoint how and where the E. coli
might be originating, adding that re-routing or relocating the outfalls
were possible solutions to the beach contamination problem.
McLellan said in an interview "it isn't good management practice to have
storm outfalls so near to a recreational area."
Testing of Lake Michigan water and the cleaning and closing the beaches in
Milwaukee is a shared responsibility.
The UW-M Institute uses state and federal grant funds to find sources of
Lake Michigan water pollution. McLellan said water sampling and pollution
research was ongoing up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline. In the city
of Milwaukee, she said, gull droppings and sewerage infiltration into storm
water were eyed as possible beach pollution contributors.
The city of Milwaukee Health Department conducts daily tests of beach water
during the summer, and depending on pollution levels, issues swimming
advisories and beach closing recommendations. The county is in charge of
closing beaches because they are part of the county-run parks system.
In a three-month period from May 5 to Aug. 4 of this year, E. coli
contamination in the water at Bradford Beach was deemed unacceptable for
swimming 44 percent of the time -- nearly double the rate in 2003 --
according to the city Health Department.
Officials at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, the region's
sewerage treatment agency, have pointed to cutbacks in county parks'
budgets and the location of the outfalls at Bradford Beach in particular as
contributors to beach and water degradation along the lakeshore.
"Bradford Beach.suffers from poor maintenance," said Kevin Shafer, MMSD's
executive director, in an Oct. 29 report to the district's commissioners.
The report recommended a $25,000 MMSD expenditure for a Bradford Beach
demonstration improvement project in 2005.
A spot check of the Lake Park hillside, the beach and two parking lots next
to and across the road from Bradford Beach in late December bore out
Shafer's assessment. All surfaces contained a variety of fast food
wrappers, soda and beer cans, pet waste, newspapers, plastic and paper
bags. Despite signs forbidding dogs, three people were allowing their dogs
to run off-leash on the sand.
MMSD approved the expenditure in its 2005 budget and plans to meet with
county officials in February to coordinate the spending.
Shafer's report said MMSD proposed the project because "the cleanliness and
general upkeep of the beaches has suffered due to cuts to the Milwaukee
County Parks Department budget, negatively impacting water."
The MMSD addressed county budget cutbacks with grants in 2003 and 2004 to
pay for the removal from Bradford Beach of algae that acts as a food source
for bacteria, Shafer's report said.
The report recommends that the county improve its beach combing and algae
removal techniques to help lower the bacteria counts. It also calls for the
creation of a "strong public education effort" about the sources of beach
contamination and the implementation of "testing best management practices
at one of the storm sewer outfalls."
"Milwaukee County should take actions that would have an immediate,
cost-effective benefit on water quality near beaches," Shafer wrote.
Shafer pointed to an earlier joint effort among MMSD, the UW-M WATER
Institute and Milwaukee County to reduce pollution at South Shore Beach.
Shafer also said progress could be made at Bradford Beach by copying beach
grading and "innovative" cleanup techniques at Racine's beaches.
McLellan's Sept. 3 memo to the city of Milwaukee budget office did not
mince words about the how the contamination was getting onto Bradford
Beach, and about its dangers.
"We have found that the source of the E. coli is primarily from the E. coli
burden in the sand and from five outfalls," she wrote.
In italics, she added: "Any sanitary inputs into the stormwater system
presents a serious health risk to citizens using the beach."
Jennifer Gadzala
Watershed Coordinator
Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy
219-921-1119
jgadzala@comcast.net
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