Jenner & Block Secures Environmental Win to Protect Lake Michigan

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Citizen Lawsuit Challenging Milwaukee Sewage Overflows CHICAGO, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ — Two environmental groups can press forward with a lawsuit to halt the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's raw sewage discharges into Lake Michigan after the case was upheld today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. The ruling reverses a lower court decision in Milwaukee. The lower court ruling concluded last year that the state of Wisconsin was diligently prosecuting sewage overflows from Milwaukee. The higher court today found the state's prosecution to be questionable, at best. "This ruling underscores the power that the Clean Water Act gave to citizens in Milwaukee and elsewhere," said Lynn Broaddus, executive director of Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, one of the groups that filed the suit. "We have the right and responsibility to insist on the end to sewage dumping and compliance with environmental laws." The court's ruling means that the Lake Michigan Federation and Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers can proceed to argue that MMSD's efforts do not comply with the Clean Water Act and that Milwaukee's raw industrial and domestic waste into Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's rivers, since 1995, will continue. In their lawsuit, […]

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