Thousands of federal workers have been fired since late last week, including probationary employees with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service in Wisconsin.

The mass layoffs come as the Trump administration takes sweeping steps to slash the federal workforce, with job cuts led by billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. The firings follow a Feb. 11 executive order issued by President Donald Trump to scale back the number of workers.

The U.S. Forest Service is firing 3,475 employees nationwide, said Matt Brossard, general vice president of the Forest Service Council with the National Federation of Federal Employees union. The Forest Service Council represents about 20,000 employees, including workers in Wisconsin.

“The U.S. Forest Service manages national forests, manages all the recreation areas, campgrounds, visitor centers, all of that is going to take a hit,” Brossard told WPR.

The agency did not immediately provide details on the firings in Wisconsin. WPR spoke with several Forest Service workers and a union representative in Wisconsin about the cuts. They requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. The union official said a dozen probationary employees were fired in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest over the weekend, adding workers fear that layoffs are just beginning to ramp up.

One Forest Service worker in Wisconsin said they were called in on Saturday by their supervisor and notified their termination was effective immediately due to poor performance. They were directed to fill out paperwork, return federal credentials or access cards and log out of computers. The federal worker said they never had anything but excellent performance reviews.

“It’s not right,” the fired worker said. “It’s illegal. It’s a lie.”

Another U.S. Forest Service worker with knowledge of the situation corroborated the account. Agency workers say those affected include veterans, people who just purchased a home and another individual with a baby on the way.

One individual said they received no severance. The employee will receive a final paycheck, as well as any unpaid leave. While they’re eligible for unemployment, the worker said the maximum payment is nowhere near what they were making.

Some say they’re exploring appeals or potential legal challenges, which might include joining lawsuits filed by unions. Unions are seeking a court order to temporarily bar the Trump administration’s firing of federal employees, which they have said is unlawful. Brossard said union lawyers are seeking a ruling that would retroactively bar firings that began last week, and a federal judge planned to release a decision in the near future.

Wisconsin has about 2,200 workers across federal agencies that had been employed for less than a year, according to the most recent federal data. However, one Forest Service employee with knowledge of firings in Wisconsin said there’s a misconception that probationary workers are new to government work. Some staff members who were fired have been in federal service for 10 years or longer.

“We’re not nameless, faceless federal bureaucrats,” the federal worker said. “We’re people living in these communities, too.”

The Forest Service employee said some might be forced to leave rural northern Wisconsin to look for other jobs.

Elsewhere in northern Wisconsin, several federal probationary employees with Apostle Islands National Lakeshore have also been fired, according to Julie Van Stappen, the lakeshore’s former chief of resource management. The National Parks Conservation Association said Friday that 1,000 employees with the National Park Service are being laid off nationwide, but the agency plans to exempt 5,000 seasonal workers.

Van Stappen said probationary workers at the Apostle Islands received an email Friday, noting the lakeshore has more new employees than normal due to staff turnover in recent years. She said the Apostle Islands typically has an estimated 25 to 30 permanent employees each year and about 35 to 45 seasonal workers. It’s unclear how many workers might have been affected by cuts and whether they were permanent or seasonal staff.

“I don’t know if any of the seasonal employees are able to come back or be hired,” Van Stappen said.

Staff with the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for details on the firings. The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has 21 islands spread over an area of Lake Superior that’s nearly 290,000 acres, which is larger than Rocky Mountain National Park.

The cuts come as Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany has proposed designating the Apostle Islands as the first national park in Wisconsin. While Van Stappen doesn’t think that designation would provide any advantage to the public, she questioned how resources and services would be maintained while staff is being cut.

She noted seasonal employees interact with the public on reserving campsites, providing safety information, conducting field work, managing natural resources, maintaining historic structures and aiding with search and rescue.

“I don’t have any idea how the park is going to function or how the resources will be negatively affected. But for sure, the public will be,” Van Stappen said.

WPR also verified firings at other agencies, including researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin expressed alarm over the mass firings.

“Trump and Republicans are finding every which way to make room in the budget for tax breaks for their wealthy friends – even cutting support for our veterans, aviation employees tasked with making flying safe, and nurses, doctors, and scientists who work to keep Wisconsin families healthy,” Baldwin said in a statement.

In a statement, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said the nation is now more than $36 trillion in debt with a $1.8 trillion deficit.

“A private sector entity in this financial condition could not survive and would employ no one. To avoid a destructive debt crisis, a dramatic reduction of federal spending must occur. We are witnessing the beginning of that process,” Johnson said. “Better we do it in a controlled manner instead of in an uncontrolled crisis.”

This story was originally published by WPR.

‘It’s illegal’: Federal workers in Wisconsin fired amid nationwide layoffs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Thousands of federal workers in Wisconsin are under pressure to consider buyouts under President Donald Trump’s plans to shrink the federal government, which could affect services offered in the state.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal employees, which is being challenged by several labor unions. Union leaders are warning workers that the deal may not be honored because Congress hasn’t authorized funds for it. The judge has set another hearing for Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile the White House has set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday for federal workers to decide whether to take buyout offers.

As of last March, Wisconsin had more than 18,000 federal employees, and it’s unclear how many may have accepted the offer. 

They perform a wide range of duties that may include enforcing federal environmental regulations, providing financial aid to small businesses, maintaining medical centers and clinics for veterans, prosecuting criminal cases, providing military aid and disaster relief and much more.

Federal data shows most federal employees in Wisconsin work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has nearly 11,000 employees based in the state.

Crystal Knoll, a veterans service officer in Vernon County, said most counties work with the regional Veterans Affairs office in Milwaukee when veterans file claims for benefits. Knoll said a shortage of staff, particularly doctors and nurses, would be a detriment.

“The VA is already kind of strapped for staffing, so it can kind of get hard to get veterans in for appointments,” Knoll said. “Thankfully, we do have community care programs so veterans can use the local facilities that are contracted with the VA, but it still puts a strain on even the general public getting appointments when we’re trying to use both the VA and civilian side of healthcare.”

The state has more than 323,000 veterans. In 2023, the VA spent more than $4.3 billion in Wisconsin for veterans services, including medical care and compensation for service-related disabilities.

The administration’s “Fork in the Road” directive warned employees that most federal agencies will likely be “downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.” It’s been promoted by billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

In a statement, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said forcing out VA doctors, nurses and caseworkers would deprive veterans of care.

“Our federal government is not perfect — and I have some ideas on how to make it more efficient — but ripping the rug out from those who served is just beyond the pale,” Baldwin said.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said in a social media post that he had more faith in Musk to investigate waste, fraud and abuse than bureaucrats.

“They’re not accountable to anybody. They don’t provide the American public information through their elected representatives here in Congress, who else could investigate that?” Johnson told Fox Business news. “I applaud Elon Musk. I applaud the Trump administration.”

Knoll, who served with the Wisconsin National Guard, said she hasn’t observed any disruptions in service, but she’s heard conflicting information about whether the VA would be exempt from hiring freezes. The Office of Personnel Management has said a few agencies will see staff increases, and the agency noted it may grant exemptions for provision of veterans, Medicare and Social Security benefits. 

Federal union leaders say agencies already face staffing challenges

Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, represents nearly 27,000 field workers with the Social Security Administration nationwide.

Based in Madison, LaPointe has spent much of the last 16 years processing claims for seniors and people living with disabilities. She said the proposed buyouts and threats of layoffs come as the agency is facing a 50-year low in staffing amid a growing number of beneficiaries.

“We’ve been in a hiring freeze for a year, so losing mass amounts of staff at the Social Security Administration would have a snowball effect as workloads mount on a stressed out workforce,” LaPointe said. “And how that translates to the public is severely long service delays.”

Most recent data shows 550 federal workers with the Social Security Administration are based in Wisconsin. LaPointe said people living with disabilities have seen wait times grow from two to eight months for approval of their benefits. At the same time, former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley told Congress in September that an estimated 30,000 people died in 2023 while waiting for such claims to be processed.

“We don’t just grapple with the uncertainty of our own job. We grapple with the uncertainty of the public that are relying on these earned benefits to survive,” LaPointe said. “We’re really sort of operating under a fight or flight or freeze environment.”

Federal workers weigh options and whether to return to offices

Most federal workers would also be forced to return to offices. One local union representative for federal workers in Wisconsin, an employee of the U.S. Forest Service, said such mandates done in the name of efficiency are decreasing productivity among employees. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“I have heard stories of people being furloughed because they’re speaking out against the administration,” the worker said. “As a union representative, I could potentially have a target on my back just for that, and that’s scary.”

The worker said many remote employees hired to work at offices in Wisconsin don’t live anywhere near them, leaving some in rural areas with tough choices and limited alternatives for other jobs. The worker said it feels like the administration is bullying people to accept buyouts, but many employees would lose their pensions if they left now.

The Forest Service is housed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which employs more than 1,700 people in Wisconsin. Wisconsin workers with the Forest Service oversee timber sales, compliance with federal environmental laws, recreation in national forests and other duties.

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest bills itself as one of the nation’s top timber-producing forests, and annual harvests directly support around 57,000 jobs in the state’s forest products industry.

The union representative warned timber sales could be hamstrung or shut down amid buyouts or layoffs.

“We only have so many projects cleared and prepped that eventually, if we don’t have the people to even do the review … then we’re not going to be able to manage the national forests in the ways that the public deserves,” the union leader said.

Westby dairy farmer Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, noted farmers often work with federal employees at the Farm Service Agency to sign up for crop insurance or access financial assistance when milk prices drop. They also take part in conservation programs that provide payments or cost-share assistance for practices that benefit water quality and control runoff.

He said reduced staffing could hurt Wisconsin farmers. 

“It could mean that farmers simply don’t get a check, or the check might come too late to help with making sure that the monthly bills get paid,” Von Ruden said. “Timeliness is everything, and that means that we have to have an accurate or a good amount of folks hired to make sure the process happens.”

In 2023, falling milk prices led to record payments under a program to help dairy farmers, including $276.8 millon to around 4,300 farms in Wisconsin.

Federal workers like LaPointe say they’ve devoted years of their life to serving the public.

“The public feels emboldened to attack federal workers instead of thank us for our service to this country,” she said. “We’re being demonized, and that takes a toll.”

This story was originally published by WPR.

Wisconsin has 18,000 federal workers. Trump’s plans for cuts could erode services. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A new study builds on previous research that shows winters on the Great Lakes are growing shorter due to climate change.

The Great Lakes have been losing an average of 14 days of winter conditions each decade since 1995 due to warming air temperatures, according to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters.

The study’s lead author, Eric Anderson, an environmental engineering professor with the Colorado School of Mines, said researchers arrived at their findings by examining ice conditions and surface water temperatures.

“We do see that winter time — whether you think about it in terms of ice or think about in terms of really cold water temperatures — we’re just seeing less days where those conditions exist,” Anderson said.

Research has already found the Great Lakes are losing ice cover at a rate of about 5 percent each decade for a total loss of 25 percent between 1973 and 2023. Those changes are occurring as the region has seen among the greatest increases in average winter temperatures over the past 50 years.

The study builds on that research by focusing on changes in water temperatures during the winter months. Anderson noted only Lake Erie typically sees heavy ice cover each winter, whereas the other Great Lakes often see areas of open water.

Winter is typically a blind spot for researchers due to difficulties in obtaining measurements when there’s less ice cover on the lakes. For the study, they relied largely on satellite data, as well as several monitoring stations, to examine how mixing of the lakes from top to bottom may be changing during the winter. Typically, the lakes tend to mix in the fall and spring when temperatures are the same at the top and bottom.

Winter days on the Great Lakes are being lost to spring and fall

During the summer, the surface of the lakes is warmer and the bottom is colder. In the winter, the opposite is true.

The study’s co-author, Craig Stow, said the reason for that is the maximum density of water is 4 degrees Celsius or about 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Stow, who is a scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, said researchers found there’s been an increase in the number of spring and fall days in the lakes.

“The winter days are being lost to those spring and fall times where the temperatures are essentially the same from the very top to the very bottom,” Stow said.

Stow said that means the lakes are staying warmer in the fall and warming up earlier in the spring.

Winter days on the lakes were defined as days with ice cover or having surface temperatures of less than 2 degrees Celsius. The loss of winter days was found over nearly the entire area of lakes Superior, Huron and Erie. In lakes Michigan and Ontario, the loss of winter days was primarily along the shorelines and bays.

“We saw decreases in ice cover in areas where you tend to see large amounts of ice, so Green Bay and up near Beaver Island and Straits of Mackinac,” Anderson said. “We didn’t see big decreases in ice for the rest of the lake, so you didn’t have a lot of coastal ice loss along the eastern side of Wisconsin or down near Chicago.”

However, researchers did see a loss of colder temperatures in open waters around the southern shoreline of Lake Michigan, shifting to more days that had temperatures like spring or fall.

Lake Superior didn’t lose as many ice days as lakes Huron or Erie because it doesn’t see as much ice cover in the middle of the lake. 

“It was losing some number of days with coastal ice, particularly along the Wisconsin shoreline of Superior in the western end there,” Anderson said.

Even so, he said the lake experienced a big shift to temperatures closer to what one might expect in the spring and fall out in open waters.

Anderson and Stow said the changes could have implications for the Great Lakes in terms of extended periods when algal blooms may occur, the duration of shipping seasons, effects on the food web and the $7 billion fishing industry.

“We looked at a couple decades here of  change that we see you’re losing a half a month of what we used to think about being the winter,” Anderson said. “That’s really important for the chemistry of the lake. It could be important for the biology of the lake.”

Researchers say questions remain about whether the loss of winter days may stay the same or accelerate, which is one of the things they hope to examine in the future.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Study finds winter days on the Great Lakes growing shorter due to climate change is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Thirty-year-old Conner Andrews has swum in Lake Michigan since his childhood days vacationing in Door County.

“It was always a huge deal for me to go to the beach and have fun there and enjoy the waves and just being immersed in such a vast, vast body of water,” said Andrews, a Nashotah resident and former member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison men’s swim team.

These days he gets the same feeling swimming at Milwaukee-area beaches. But he must pick his waters and timing wisely — to avoid wading into a contaminated stew of pollutants that might swirl in some locations. That includes bacteria-laden stormwater and sewage flowing into local waterways by the millions of gallons.

Parts of the Milwaukee area rely on a combined sewer system to collect stormwater and sewage for treatment. But increasingly heavy rains can overwhelm the sewers, sending diluted but nevertheless untreated waste into local rivers and Lake Michigan. 

The overflows hinder locals who like to fish and swim. And they can contribute to beach closures and make people sick.

The wastewater flows intensified in 2018, even as the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District spends millions of dollars on a plan to eliminate overflows by 2035, state data obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio show.

In 2018, the agency overseeing Milwaukee’s system, which serves 1.1 million people and 28 communities, saw six combined sewer overflows, the most events since 1999. Those overflows sent 1.2 billion gallons of stormwater and untreated sewage into rivers, canals and a stream that drain into Lake Michigan.

Milwaukee’s latest discharges come after the sewerage district spent $2.3 billion on pollution abatement in the 1980s and ‘90s, including construction of what is now a 28.5-mile tunnel system to cut overflows into Lake Michigan. 

The city is not alone in grappling with overflows. 

Along Lake Superior’s south shore in Ashland, population 8,000, some 15 million gallons of stormwater and partially untreated sewage overwhelmed the city’s system during just one 2018 storm. It was part of a statewide spike in overflows that year.

Wisconsin in 2018 saw its most overflow events since 2010, with increasing volumes of discharged waste, Department of Natural Resources data show. 

Experts say the problem plagues communities across the Great Lakes, a drinking water source for 48 million people in the United States and Canada — including about 867,000 residents in Milwaukee and the surrounding region. 

Driving the spike: intensifying rainfall due to climate change.

Investment at all levels of government has fallen short in addressing aging sewer systems overwhelmed by the increasing flows.  

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes. “Combine that with the fact that we’re seeing more extreme storms across the Great Lakes region, and you’ve got a recipe for some serious problems.”

Andrews has sought to draw attention to Milwaukee’s water quality pollution problems  — and any progress — in a novel way. He helped organize the Cream City Classic, in which contestants swim a 1.5-mile portion of the Milwaukee River that mixes with Lake Michigan. That includes a stretch listed as a Great Lakes pollution hotspot, with toxic contamination including heavy metals from old industrial uses and sewer overflows.

Organizers held the first race in August 2018, specifically choosing that time when overflow-fueling rainfall was thought to be less likely.

“We still need to test the water to make sure that it’s clean enough (to swim in),” Andrews said.

Heavy rains have not thwarted the race in its first two years, but Andrews said he would not be surprised if that happens one day. Less than three weeks after the 2018 race, for instance, intense rainfall sent nearly 395 million gallons of stormwater and sewage into the Milwaukee River and other local waters.

Sewage surge follows decades of progress

As Wisconsin’s largest city, Milwaukee’s sewage system leads in wastewater releases. 

In 2018, it discharged more than eight times more waste than systems in the rest of the state combined, due to wet weather, according to DNR data. 

Milwaukee’s latest sewage surge into Lake Michigan follows decades of major progress on the issue. 

About 8 to 9 billion gallons once overflowed from Milwaukee’s combined sewer system each year, even prompting the state of Illinois to sue the city for “nuisance” discharges. That was before the sewerage district started building its Deep Tunnel in the 1980s, a 521-million gallon storage system 300 feet underground that collects wastewater and stormwater until it can be treated and discharged. 

The tunnel, built in three phases, dramatically cut overflows after 1994, the first full year its initial 19.4-mile phase went into service. It helps the district treat more than 98 percent of its wastewater in a typical year, keeping at least 128 billion gallons of polluted water out of Lake Michigan.

But increasingly heavy rains are now adding more stress to the city’s sewer system. 

“Clearly, there is a link between heavy rainfall events and (sewer overflows),” said Adrian Stocks, DNR water quality bureau director.

The Milwaukee sewerage district’s two wastewater plants collectively treat up to 600 million gallons of stormwater and sewage each day. But just one inch of rain across the district’s 411 square-mile service area equals more than 7 billion gallons of water. 

“It’s when you get two inches of rain in 20 minutes that it overwhelms the sewer system,” said Bill Graffin, the district’s spokesman. “You’re slamming so much water into the sewers and the tunnel and the treatment plants that it’s sometimes not possible to keep up with all of it.”

Steve Vavrus, senior scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research, said climate change is driving Wisconsin’s record rainfall. Last year was the wettest in the state’s recorded state history, while 2018 was third-wettest, according to data from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center that dates back to 1895. 

“There’s generally more moisture to tap when the weather systems are favorable for rainfall or snowfall,” said Vavrus. “When we do get rain or snow, it tends to be heavier than it used to.”

Excluding Milwaukee, Wisconsin communities in 2018 discharged 150 million gallons of sewage and stormwater during 388 overflow events. That was the highest volume since 2010, the fifth-wettest year on record.

As of October 2019, 359 million gallons overflowed from those communities’ systems,  while Milwaukee discharged more than 500 million gallons into waterways. And that was in a year that the Milwaukee district captured and cleaned a record 85.6 billion gallons of water.

“So, basically, we captured and cleaned 99.3% of every drop of water that entered the regional system,” said Graffin.

Engineers traditionally use historical rainfall data when designing sewer systems and other infrastructure, according to a 2011 report on Wisconsin’s changing climate. That makes those systems vulnerable to increasingly intense rains.

“You base (design) on what the past has been in terms of heavy rainfall or snow water melt events,” Vavrus said. “But, if that changes, then suddenly maybe you’ve under-designed for the capacity that you need.”

Even now, engineers rarely wrap climate projections into infrastructure design, according to the National Climate Assessment, a major federal government report.  

Public health threat

Climate scientists expect the region’s rains will only intensify as worldwide carbon dioxide emissions speed earth’s warming. By mid-century, Milwaukee could see up to 20 percent more untreated waste flowing into waterways without any changes to its current wastewater system, according to research by Sandra McLellan, a professor with the School of Freshwater Sciences at UW-Milwaukee. That could send more pathogens into the water.

“Instead of that happening once a year, it’s going to happen two or three times a year,” she said. “When it happens in spring and during the swimming season, that’s when people can be exposed to that water.”

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In one extreme 1993 case, the waterborne-parasite cryptosporidium sickened an estimated 403,000 people in a five-county area around Milwaukee, according to the American Journal of Public Health. Later research linked 54 deaths to the outbreak, mostly AIDS patients. 

The outbreak followed heavy rainfall, and experts speculated that human sewage and waste from slaughtered livestock and other animals contributed to the outbreak.

Milwaukee has invested $508 million in treatment upgrades and monitoring to prevent a future outbreak. But other communities remain vulnerable to pollution caused by heavy rains and runoff. 

In a 2018 study, McLellan and other researchers found that gastrointestinal pathogens are “widespread in urban waterways following rainfall and 10-fold higher following (combined sewer overflows).” This creates “exposure routes through recreational and drinking water,” the researchers found. 

While water treatment plants are designed to remove those pathogens, the 1993 Milwaukee outbreak “illustrates the consequences of failures in this protective barrier,” the researchers concluded. 

Beach closures bring ‘grief’ and ‘sadness’

Researchers are increasingly flagging high levels of E. coli at beaches in Milwaukee and elsewhere along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shorelines. The bacteria arrive in human, bird and animal feces, and it can sicken those who ingest it. The bacteria have triggered beach closures and advisories that have spanned more than 60 percent of summer days at Milwaukee’s South Shore Beach.

That beach and Maslowski Beach in Ashland are among those along the shorelines most prone to closure from unsafe swimming conditions, according to a July 2019 report from the advocacy group Environment America. 

The contamination worries Melodie Phipps, who lives in Ashland. She loved to walk barefoot along the sandy shoreline of Maslowski Beach and swim in Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay. But that was before she learned of the city’s struggles with its aging infrastructure and sewer overflows. Now, she steers clear of the water.

“I feel a huge grief — huge sadness and a longing on a hot day when the humidity is 95 percent and you’re just sweating and it’s sunny,” she said.

Researchers at Northland College in Ashland regularly sample water quality along the city’s beaches. More than 30 percent of samples they collected between 2014 and 2016 exceeded federal water quality standards for E. coli, according to a 2017 report. The bacteria stemmed from a variety of sources, researchers noted.

In many cases, seagulls appear to be the most dominant contributor, said Matt Hudson, associate director with the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland. 

McLellan said similar studies have shown high levels of E. coli at Milwaukee beaches come mostly from shoreline runoff and wildlife — not sewer overflows. But researchers worry climate change-induced overflows will only send more pollution into waterways, and the discharges are a prime source for the pathogens most likely to cause illness.

“If I had to say what’s the most serious pollution sources, it’s sewage and any kind of human contamination,” McLellan said. 

Overwhelming old systems 

The growing stress on wastewater systems comes as governments struggle to fund their upkeep.

In 2012, Wisconsin’s roughly 600 publicly owned wastewater systems reported needing a collective $6.3 billion in extra investment to meet federal water quality goals — nearly half for  pipeline construction or repair and managing stormwater. Systems nationwide needed $271 billion in investment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

That includes Ashland, which reported needing about $10 million to upgrade its separate sanitary sewer and stormwater systems. More than one-third of its sewer pipes are more than 50 years old, and nearly half are past their useful life, said John Butler, the city’s public works director.

“The rate of replacement or repair over the recent history hasn’t kept up with the rate at which it’s aging,” he said. 

Ashland’s wastewater treatment plant can handle up to 2,700 gallons per minute, or about 3.8 million gallons a day. But heavy rain events can increase flows 12-fold, overwhelming the plant. More than 6 inches of rain hit Ashland during Father’s Day weekend 2018, sending 15 million gallons of wastewater into Lake Superior. 

Ashland’s overflows happen when water seeps into cracked pipes or into connections between the stormwater and sanitary sewer systems, Butler said. 

Additionally, some private property owners might unknowingly contribute to the problem, according to Valerie Damstra, operations manager of the Mary Griggs Burke Center.  

Some have downspouts, storm drains or sump pumps illegally connected to sewer pipes, adding additional stormwater to the municipal system. 

City officials have held public forums about how to disconnect from sewer pipes, but Ashland — like other small communities — has little funding to help homeowners make those fixes. 

“Some of these communities are doing the best they can with the resources they have,” said Stocks, of the DNR.

Pricey fixes

Since 1991, the DNR has awarded more than $4.6 billion in loans and assistance for roughly 1,000 sewer and stormwater projects, with about 30 percent of funding going to Milwaukee, according to the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Jim Ritchie, DNR environmental loan section chief, said funding requests are only increasing as old wastewater systems deteriorate. 

Brammeier, of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said President Trump and Congress must find a way to unlock funding to fix the nation’s water woes.

About 96 percent of U.S. spending on water and wastewater projects comes from state and local governments, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The federal government chipped in  billions for water and wastewater programs in the 2019 fiscal year, but its investment has declined in recent years amid competing priorities in Washington. 

Both Republican and Democratic leaders in recent years have proposed a dramatic boost in federal infrastructure spending — including for water upgrades, but Congress has yet to approve a major funding overhaul.

Meanwhile, local governments are forging ahead with their own limited resources. 

Beginning next year, Ashland plans to spend about $600,000 annually for deferred upkeep while also seeking state loans, Butler said. An EPA grant also helped the city install a grassy channel at Maslowski Beach designed to capture and treat stormwater — potentially preventing 219,000 gallons of runoff from reaching Lake Superior. 

Along Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee sewerage district is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into flood control along watersheds. It set a goal of zero overflows by 2035 by adding 740 million gallons of stormwater storage.

The district estimates it will cost at least $1.3 billion to install green roofs, rain gardens and other projects to capture water across its service area. Such “green infrastructure” is expected to save $44 million in the city’s combined sewer area when compared to building new storage capacity in the Deep Tunnel.

“The green infrastructure really helps the gray infrastructure operate more effectively, and in that case it also makes it more climate resilient,” said Kevin Shafer, the district’s executive director.

“We really live by the mantra that every drop counts.”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

As rains intensify, sewage surges into Wisconsin waters is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.