Miller Park Flushes Into Lake Michigan

There's lots of things that go into building new ballparks that people just assume are taken care of. I mean, you assume the thing can hold 40,000 people without collapsing. You assume the escalators will work. You assume beer will cost $7. You assume that the sewage pipes won't flow into storm sewers that empty into rivers that flow into Lake Michigan. Well, if you assumed all of those things about Miller Park, you would be wrong on the final count.

At least one sanitary sewer at Miller Park is misconnected to a storm sewer, allowing untreated human waste to flow directly into the Menomonee River and downstream to Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District officials said Tuesday.

Green dye flowing out of a storm sewer on the Menomonee River confirmed at least one misconnection between a sanitary sewer from Miller Park and storm sewer lines draining from stadium parking lots less than three weeks before 40,000 fans arrive for opening day.

The improper connection allows human fecal bacteria from bathrooms on the northeast corner of the stadium to flow into the river.

The most terrifying part is that it's possible this condition has existed since 1953!

Duckett added that the problem could have been created during the construction of Miller Park, or it might be a problem connected with laterals that were built for County Stadium.

Built in 1953, County Stadium was razed when Miller Park opened in 2001.

I have to think everyone reading this has been in a stadium ballpark before. All that greasy food, nachos, and beer right into... **shudder**

(For all you panicked Milwaukee-ites, that's a picture from China, not the Menomonee or Lake Michigan. I'm just being a little dramatic.)