Will Walker get a pass on poopy pollution?

Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker is doing his damnedest not to get any sewage on him while he runs for governor.

It's one of those messy Milwaukee issues, where there is an enormous amount of finger-pointing about who is to blame for polluting Lake Michigan and fouling its beaches.

The easiest culprit to point at, of course, is MMSD, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. It has taken its share of the blame and then some for sewage overflows during major storms. Everyone loves to beat up on MMSD.

WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes gives weekly "Deep Tunnel Awards" to those he judges most full of what he insists on calling "poop," which seems a little childish. (If you can't say shit on the air, how about feces or fecal matter or excrement?)

But I digress.

Tuesday's page one headline story in Milwaukee's daily paper was "Bradford is dirtiest city beach." Its E. coli bacteria counts were too high for safe swimming 61% of the time during the last swimming season, the story said.

What it mentioned only in passing is that storm sewers owned by Milwaukee County have been cited as the main culprit for Bradford Beach pollution.

This from an earlier Journal Sentinel story last January: While sewage dumping after heavy storms contributes to beach pollution, storm sewers draining directly on the beach explains elevated bacteria levels after light rains, said Sandra McLellan, a water quality expert with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes Water Institute.

"The storm sewer outfalls are the primary cause for the pollution we're seeing at Bradford Beach," said McLellan, who is conducting a federally funded study of the beach. WisPolitics article.

Those Milwaukee County storm sewers carry runoff from the streets -- oil and gasoline, animal waste (Sykes would say dog poop), fertilizers, litter, and whatever else is in the parking lot or in the gutter - and dumps it on the beach. That provides nutrients for the weeds to grow. The rain also carries E. coli, a bacterium found in human and animal waste, that officials use as the standard in determining whether a beach should be closed.

So, what is Scott Walker doing about it?

Glad you asked. Nothing. Well, that's not fair. He's thinking about it. He's also trying to stay as far away from the issue as possible.

Last week, for example, a host of officials turned out for a news conference to unveil the new beach combing machine that will clean Bradford and other beaches -- paid for not by the county but by MMSD, to the tune of $50,000. Mayor Tom Barrrett, State Rep. Jon Richards, County Sup. Gerry Broderick, State Rep. Chris Sinicki, the Milwaukee Health Dept, MMSD, DNR, Parks Director Sue Black and the Milwaukee Community Service Corps were all there.

But no Scott Walker, who was presumably off somewhere running for governor. He may just have been hiding under his desk, anticipating that both Barrett and Richards would call on Walker to move the storm sewers and find funding to clean his beaches -- which they did.

Walker has not put any money in his budget to move the storm sewers, and hasn't even made a commitment to do it in the future. As usual, he is pointing fingers in several other directions and refusing to accept responsibility although the county clearly owns those storm sewers that are fouling the beach.

The state DNR is in the process of issuing permits for Milwaukee County storm sewers. Unless they get tough, you can bet Walker won't move the sewers. The Milwaukee County Parks Committee didn’t give any indication that they were going to leap into action when UWM's Water Quality Institute presented this information to them a couple weeks ago.

The county has known about this problem for months. Beachcombing helps, but cutting off the major source of pollution will produce the most dramatic improvement.

Will the DNR hold Milwaukee County accountable? Will Charlie Sykes give Scott Walker the Deep Tunnel Award this week?

Do pigs fly?