Common Ground Releases New Allegations Against Veolia

Greg Gryskiewicz speaks at Common Ground press conference. Photo taken May 13, 2026 by Graham Kilmer.

Common Ground released new allegations Wednesday against the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and its private wastewater treatment operator, Veolia.

The community organization is running a public campaign calling for a third-party performance audit of Veolia’s operation of the sewerage district’s two wastewater treatment facilities at Jones Island and South Shore. Common Ground charges that Veolia is purposely running wastewater systems below capacity during rain events, increasing the risk of sewer overflows into Lake Michigan and backups into basements across the region, and is forgoing maintenance to save money.

Veolia, a French transnational corporation, has held the contract to operate the facilities since 2008. The current 10-year contract with MMSD is valued at more than $500 million. The next 10-year contract, beginning in 2028 and valued at about $700 million, is up for approval in September. Veolia is competing for the contract with Jacobs Solutions, a Dallas-based engineering services company.

Common Ground released a letter Wednesday written by another whistleblower, Greg Gryskiewicz, to senior managers at MMSD detailing widespread problems with the equipment used to run the wastewater systems and the staff employed to fix and operate them. Gryskiewicz is a former Veolia employee. He wrote the letter in 2023 but never sent it, out of fear of retaliation.

During a press conference Wednesday, Gryskiewicz said working at the wastewater plants was his “dream job.” He worked there for 14 years and cared about his co-workers and the work he did day to day. But Veolia’s management of the facilities ultimately caused too much stress. The company created an environment of fear that left him sure he or others would be fired or sued if they spoke up, he said.

Gryskiewicz Letter

Near the beginning of his letter, drafted before he quit his job with Veolia, Gryskiewicz wrote, “In a perfect world it would be nice to sit down and have a reasonable conversation about what I am going to talk about, but the risks are simply too great.”

Gryskiewicz outlined 13 specific problems ranging from equipment maintenance to employee morale. If the issues are not addressed, he warned, “the facilities will cross the point of no return. The issues will generate contractual and state permit violations, and will lead to a mass exodus of all of the talent in the workforce.”

Since Common Ground launched its campaign, MMSD and Veolia have charged that the community group has not shared enough specific information about the problems at the plants. Veolia has even impugned Common Ground’s motivations, suggesting the community organization is attempting to disrupt the ongoing procurement process.

Gryskiewicz alleges Veolia’s policy of running machines to the point of failure should be easy to verify, saying there are as many as two broken machines for every one that works. On top of that, there is no system “redundancy,” leading to reduced system functioning. When machines fail, instead of purchasing new parts, they’re simply taken off other pieces of equipment.

“This is a serious problem because the expectations put on the performance of both plants is higher than ever. One simple failure leads to significant problems,” Gryskiewicz wrote. “Power outages, air outages, pump failures, etc. all lead to rush jobs to barely keep things running. The stress level at both plants has hit an all-time high because something as simple as a power outage leads to fears of permit violations and firings.”

South Shore, in particular, is a problem, Gryskiewicz said, charging it has been operating at a reduced capacity for years, which threatens to “wreck both plants.”

Facilities are understaffed and employee morale is low, each condition working to reinforce the other, according to Gryskiewicz. Unqualified employees are put in charge of important equipment, and positions are eliminated, leaving sites without enough staff to perform basic functions. Gryskiewicz said morale is dropping and staff turnover is rising.

Veolia management turns over so much that Gryskiewicz wrote that it reminded him of “a company that’s going out of business.” Managers have little experience and are largely unresponsive to facility concerns voiced by rank-and-file workers, according to Gryskiewicz.

MMSD and Veolia Respond

MMSD responded to Wednesday’s release with a brief statement saying it would need more time to review the seven-page letter and expressing a desire to protect the ongoing procurement process.

“MMSD is two years into a public procurement effort to hire a company to operate and maintain the district’s infrastructure for a 10-year period,” MMSD said in the statement. “It’s a time-consuming effort for everyone involved and it must continue to be a fair process. MMSD cannot publicly comment on these accusations until after the procurement process is completed. A final decision on the next 10-year contract is expected this summer.”

In a statement, Veolia Senior Vice President Adam Lisberg repeated allegations that Common Ground is intentionally trying to “sabotage MMSD’s fair and transparent procurement process,” this time adding that the group is attempting to “bully the Board of Commissioners and obstruct this democratic oversight body — representing 1.1 million people in 29 municipalities — from making an impartial and informed decision.”

The allegations raised at the press conference are old and “have no effect on Milwaukee’s waterways, public health or flood protection,” Lisberg said.

“Veolia stands firmly behind the performance and integrity of our team, operating an extremely complex system under rigorous regulatory oversight to meet MMSD, state and federal standards,” Lisberg said. “Veolia encourages all employees to report any workplace concerns, even anonymously, whether directly to their supervisors or through additional channels we’ve established to report issues without fear of retaliation.”

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