The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is hiring a company to create a whistleblower hotline for complaints about the operator of its massive wastewater treatment system.
The move comes two weeks after the advocacy group Common Ground and Steve Jacquart, a retired longtime high-ranking MMSD official, accused Veolia North America of mismanagement. Common Ground also called for a third-party audit of Veolia during its April 30 event in Milwaukee.
Veolia is the private operator of MMSD’s wastewater treatment system and is one of two firms now competing for a 10‑year contract worth up to about $700 million. The company, a subsidiary of the French utility giant Veolia, has run MMSD’s treatment plants under public‑private partnership contracts since 2008.
Kevin Shafer, MMSD’s executive director, said in a May 11 email to the agency’s commissioners that he had asked staff to hire a “whistleblower hotline” company to receive complaints from retired and current employees for both MMSD and Veolia. He said it would help MMSD better move forward with an audit.
“I’m hoping through this hotline that MMSD will be able to determine the accusations against Veolia,” Shafer wrote. “We will use that information to determine the scope of the performance audit.”
After Jacquart and Common Ground went public with their concerns, MMSD had initially hired a Madison-based human resources and law firm to investigate allegations against Veolia, according to emails provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“At this point, we are proposing a preliminary investigation to help determine the scope of any subsequent audit or investigative activities, by interviewing the individuals who have raised concerns to Common Ground,” Emily Gnam of Lake Effect HR & Law wrote in a May 5 email to Bob Connolly, co-chair of Common Ground’s water team.
But Connolly and Common Ground rejected the proposal.
“We do not believe this proposal is a good faith effort to discover and report the full truth to the MMSD Commissioner and the public,” Connolly wrote in a May 8 letter to Gnam. “Because you have been hired by MMSD, you are not independent.”
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Connolly said that anything MMSD puts out “about trying to talk to whistleblowers is a sham.”
He added that he believes “the fix is in” for Veolia to get the contract.
Connolly pointed to comments Shafer made to WUWM that he’s “totally confident” Veolia is properly managing the Jones Island and South Shore wastewater plants.
Veolia said in an emailed statement to the Journal Sentinel that Common Ground is attempting to upend the years-long bid process and harm the company’s reputation.
“If Common Ground had urgent concerns about the environment or worker safety, they should have brought them directly to MMSD or Veolia or local authorities, even anonymously, so the concerns could be investigated and resolved,” Veolia said in the statement.
“Instead, Common Ground withheld this information from MMSD, Veolia and the public for years, disclosing it only when TV cameras were rolling,” the company added.
MMSD bid process intensifies ahead of fall decision
MMSD is one of the largest publicly-owned wastewater systems in the U.S. that contracts a private company to run its treatment plants. This means MMSD owns the system, but uses a private company that is responsible for day-to-day upkeep.
Veolia covers the operation and maintenance of the Jones Island and South Shore wastewater plants, Deep Tunnel system, Milorganite fertilizer factory and regional sewer infrastructure that serves 1.1 million people.
Veolia’s rival for the deal is Jacobs Solutions, the Dallas‑based engineering giant that, along with Veolia, ranks among the country’s largest private sewerage system operators. The two companies frequently bid head‑to‑head for major municipal contracts.
Jacquart, the whistleblower, said he believes Veolia’s decision to switch to a cheaper chemical for its treatment system in 2017 resulted in “reduced wastewater treatment capacity, increasing the risk of sewerage overflows and basement backups during rain storms.”
Pat Obenauf, MMSD’s manager of contract compliance, said the change in chemicals did not harm Lake Michigan. According to Obenauf, the district and Veolia resolved the issue through mediation and changes to their contract.
The issue is discussed in a 2018 report by engineering consulting group Donohue and Associates, which was contracted by MMSD to determine why the South Shore treatment plant was not meeting its performance standards in 2017.
According to the report and other records, Veolia switched from ferric chloride to ferrous chloride that year.
The report showed that after chemicals were changed at the South Shore treatment plant, the wastewater treatment performance slipped at times, and fecal bacteria limits in the contract were exceeded during some high‑flow periods. In turn, the report showed that discharge quality got worse compared with earlier years and what the contract called for, but still met state standards.
In response to the 2018 report, MMSD amended the contract in 2022 and again in 2024.
The 2022 amendment gave MMSD explicit authority to direct how much ferric chloride should be added to the treatment process at South Shore and added a financial penalty if Veolia failed to use the correct amount.
In September 2025, MMSD released a draft for the new, ten-year contract that overhauls its maintenance and cost‑sharing agreement that shifts more of the power and chemical costs in the private operator’s hands.
Veolia and Jacobs submitted their bids for the contract in January 2025. A committee of five former MMSD commissioners, selected by the governing body and approved by Shafer, has been guiding the selection process and taking part in interviews and technical reviews.
The group is expected to make its recommendation to the MMSD commission this fall. Key dates in the process are:
MMSD will hold a public hearing by the committee at 5:30 p.m. on June 11. A decision is expected in the fall.
Caitlin Looby covers the Great Lakes and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact: clooby@gannett.com. Follow her on social media @caitlooby.
Caitlin is an Outrider Fellow whose reporting also receives support from the Brico Fund, Fund for Lake Michigan, Barbara K. Frank, and individual contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.
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(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MMSD creating whistleblower hotline as $700M wastewater contract looms
Reporting by Mary Spicuzza and Caitlin Looby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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