Veolia Announces Audit Plan of Its Own

Jones Island Reclamation Facility. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.

After initially resisting the suggestion that there was anything to look into, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and its wastewater operator Veolia may end up subject to multiple operations audits.

On Monday, the MMSD Commission, an oversight body largely appointed by the mayor of the City of Milwaukee, approved an independent third-party audit of Veolia’s operation of the district’s two wastewater facilities, Jones Island and South Shore. On Thursday, the parent company of the local Veolia operation announced it would organize a “third-party” audit of its own.

The audits are a response to a public campaign by Common Ground alleging Veolia was intentionally mismanaging the district’s wastewater facilities — Jones Island and South Shore — to save money. The group’s claims are based on information from anonymous whistleblowers and former MMSD and Veolia employees who have come forward publicly. They charge that the French transnational corporation is failing to properly maintain machinery, causing the wastewater plants to run under capacity and contributing to a greater risk of basement backups and sewer overflows.

The organization launched the campaign in April, calling for an audit of Veolia operations.

Joseph Tackett, CEO of Veolia Municipal Services, sent a letter to MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer Wednesday committing to commission a “third-party review of its contract performance and environmental compliance, to supplement MMSD’s audit and provide transparency on our performance.”

The company will also set up a community advisory panel and begin collecting worker feedback for an annual workforce transparency report, according to Tackett. The company also agreed to invest in environmental protection and education efforts, as well as workforce training and programming for the local community. The commitments will last through the end of the current contract, which expires in February 2028. Veolia is calling them the “Milwaukee Standard.”

“Milwaukee and MMSD have trusted us with work that matters,” Tacket wrote in his letter to Shafer. “The Milwaukee Standard is a public declaration of the work already underway and a commitment to carry it forward with the same care and accountability this community deserves.”

MMSD is near the end of a long public bidding process for the next 10-year wastewater operations contract, which is valued at approximately $700 million. Veolia is bidding on the contract against Jacobs Solutions, a Dallas-based engineering services firm. It is the first public bidding process since Veolia was awarded the contract in 2008. The company received a no-bid extension in 2016.

Veolia’s planned audit was announced publicly just ahead of a public meeting of MMSD’s ad-hoc committee charged with reviewing the bid proposals.

There’s a chance Veolia’s audit will end up as one of three separate audits of the wastewater operations since Common Ground launched its campaign. Sup. Jack Eckblad has authored a resolution requesting that the state Legislative Audit Bureau conduct an audit. The state agency previously audited MMSD in 2002. A majority of the county board has already co-sponsored the legislation, which formalizes a public statement supervisors released in May calling for a state audit.

Eckblad is chair of the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Audit. He told Urban Milwaukee, “conversations with MMSD are ongoing, and our primary concern has been ensuring a transparent and independent audit. So far, MMSD has been increasingly responsive, and we are grateful for that increase in responsiveness around such serious and foundational concerns.”