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Audit finds safety-policy gaps at Milwaukee Water Works sites; confined‑space practices cited as most urgent
Summary
An independent assessment for Milwaukee Water Works found dozens of safety-policy gaps at four sites and flagged confined‑space procedures, arc‑flash labeling and machine guarding among the most urgent items; Water Works said it has corrected some safety problems and is working on the rest.
An independent safety and health assessment of four Milwaukee Water Works sites presented June 18 found dozens of areas for improvement and several items the auditors classified as critical, particularly in confined‑space work.
The audit — carried out for the city by an outside consultant and reviewed by the city’s internal audit staff — covered Lynnwood Water Treatment, Howard Avenue treatment, meter services and headquarters. The consultant said the review produced roughly 670 total observations across the four sites; about 75% of observations were positive, while the report counted about 81 negative observations and identified roughly 13 issues the auditor judged critical.
The auditor described a confined‑space entry at Lynnwood in which multiple workers entered deep vault spaces without continuous retrieval attachments for each worker. The assessment noted that if a worker suffers a sudden medical collapse or toxic exposure in a confined space, immediate retrieval capability is essential because emergency responders may not reach the scene within the short window for rescue.
The report also called for an arc‑flash labeling program on electrical equipment; Water Works staff told the committee the city has begun arc‑flash work on smaller locations and intends to retain a consultant for the larger Lynnwood and Howard facilities, and estimated completion for full labelling of large facilities in late 2026. The auditors also identified routine machine‑guarding and fall‑protection items and noted that some historic structures were built to older codes and present special retrofit challenges.
Milwaukee Water Works Superintendent Pat Pauley told the committee the department has already remedied about a third of the non‑critical items and several of the most serious items, and is coordinating with other city departments (DPW bridges/buildings) and outside consultants to complete longer‑term fixes. He said some items are operational constraints tied to facility age and scale and will need engineering solutions rather than simple administrative fixes.
Committee members asked whether similar assessments had been done previously; auditors and staff said they were not aware of a prior, comparable citywide outside safety review for Water Works. The committee placed the communication on file.
