LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE: MILWAUKEE METROPOLITAN SEWERAGE DISTRICT'S REGIONAL CMOM STRATEGY

In 2002, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) embarked upon a strategic planning process that will ultimately result in compliance with Capacity Assurance, Management, Operations, and Maintenance (CMOM) provisions of the longexpected Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) rule by US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). A key initial step was to establish a Framework for Involving Satellite Sewer Systems in the CMOM process. The recommendation by MMSD to its Commission was to fund CMOM Readiness Reviews and Compliance Plans for all satellite municipal sewer systems.At the outset of this effort, MMSD recognized how important it would be for its 28 satellite municipalities to comply with CMOM. The 2002 Stipulation Agreement with the State of Wisconsin also required MMSD satellite municipalities to have a CMOM Program within 2 years of MMSD reaching that status. Consequently, the consulting team and MMSD performed an initial assessment of needs at each municipality to determine the cost of developing individual CMOM Compliance Readiness Reviews and Compliance Strategies. This process involved gathering and reviewing over 350 documents and interviewing each municipality. What resulted was a new solicitation for a consultant to work on Readiness Reviews and Compliance Strategies with the satellite municipalities.The paper describes the Readiness Review process employed for the 28 satellite municipalities, the approach for developing tailored CMOM Strategies for each, and how this information was coordinated to highlight issues that could be solved with a regional approach.