Rawson Contractors pumps unfiltered muddy water into Monona Bay

Over the rainy weekend, I received a tip from a local resident that a stormwater project on Lowell St. had unprotected stormwater inlets.  This is a site of special concern, because it's just a few feet from Lake Monona.  So Monday afternoon, I looked at the site.

All but one of the stormwater inlets had been excavated--the remaining one was still unprotected, next to some very dirty pavement.  It's likely this inlet didn't lead directly to the lake, but rather to the unfinished excavations.

There were two excavations--the one closer to the lake (below) was being dewatered by two hoses...

The green hose led to a large black filter, as required by erosion regulations.  The blue hose led directly to the lake, where it was dumping unfiltered, muddy water into Monona Bay--in violation of regulations and in violation of the contract with the City.*

Shore of Monona Bay. The muddy water being pumped from the excavation (blue hose) is entering the lake near the concrete pipe.

On the scene of the violatiion.

Dirty street at end of day; the stormwater inlet was left unprotected over the rainy weekend.

The streets nearby were left quite dirty, despite rain forecast for tomorrow morning.

This mud dribbled on pavement indicates excavated mud was carried away in trucks that weren't sealed.  This violation means that mud was dribbled for miles, to be washed into the lakes during the next storm. Corner of Whittier & W. Lakeside.

Beautiful Monona Bay, and our Capitol City, deserve better treatment.

On the positive side, by the end of the work day, an inlet filter had been installed.

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Link to all of the photos taken on Oct. 25, 2010.
Photos taken by a whistleblower early Oct. 25, showing inlet filters left unprotected over rainy weekend.  Yes, more people are getting involved.
This is one of four similar projects.  Details can be found here.

*  Here's the link to the project specs.  On page D-6 of the specs, it states that the contractor is aware that water pumped during dewatering operations has to be filtered, and gives detailed requirements.  Evidently, Rawson ignored these legal requirements that they had signed their name to.