As the designated areawide water quality management planning agency for the Southeastern Wisconsin Region (in accordance with the provisions of Section 208 of the Federal Clean Water Act), and pursuant to certain Wisconsin Administrative Codes pertaining to State review and approval of sanitary sewer extension plans, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (Commission) is required to review and comment on all sanitary sewer extensions for conformance with the Commission’s areawide water quality management plan.
If the proposed sanitary sewer extension(s) and/or the development to be served by them are located within an adopted Sanitary Sewer Service Area (SSA) and outside of any environmentally sensitive areas, the project is typically deemed to be consistent with the areawide water quality management plan. Occasionally, Commission staff may find concerns with the proposed project, such as potential negative impacts on an environmentally sensitive area, location of the project (or of the lands to be served by the project) extending outside of the adopted SSA, lack of conformance with an adopted Facilities Plan, etc. In these cases, projects may need to be revised and/or approvals may be issued with certain conditions. These reviews, commonly referred to as “Water Quality Management (WQM) or 208 conformance reviews” are set forth in letters prepared by Commission staff after its review of the proposed sanitary sewer extension plans. Once completed, these conformance review letters are then sent to the party requesting the review, with a copy also provided to the subject local unit of government. This letter is also to be included along with the sanitary sewer extension plans to be submitted to the State for their review and consideration of approval.
Please note that these WQM/208 conformance review letters are required for all new and most replacement main and building sewers, gravity sewers, force mains, lift stations, interceptor main sewers, outfall sewers, combined sewer and stormwater sewers, and other similar sanitary sewer components, unless determined otherwise by the State.
Please fill out this form to start the review process.
Contact Information
Contact Name (required)
Organization (required)
Email (required)
General Project Information Municipality Name (Required) AddisonBartonBaysideBelgiumBig BendBloomfieldBrightonBristolBrookfieldBrown DeerBurlingtonButlerCaledoniaCedarburgChenequaCudahyDarienDelafieldDelavanDousmanDoverEagleEast TroyElkhornElm GroveElmwood ParkErinFarmingtonFontana on Geneva LakeFox PointFranklinFredoniaGeneseeGenevaGenoa CityGermantownGlendaleGraftonGreendaleGreenfieldHales CornersHartfordHartlandJacksonKenoshaKewaskumLac La BelleLaFayetteLaGrangeLake GenevaLannonLinnLisbonLyonsMenomonee FallsMequonMertonMilwaukeeMount PleasantMukwonagoMuskegoNashotahNew BerlinNewburgNorth BayNorth PrairieNorwayOak CreekOconomowocOconomowoc LakeOttawaPaddock LakeParisPewaukeePleasant PrairiePolkPort WashingtonRacineRandallRaymondRichfieldRichmondRiver HillsRochesterSalem LakesSaukvilleSharonShorewoodSlingerSomersSouth MilwaukeeSpring PrairieSt. FrancisSturtevantSugar CreekSummitSussexThiensvilleTrentonTroyTwin LakesUnion GroveVernonWalesWalworthWaterfordWaukeshaWauwatosaWayneWest AllisWest BendWest MilwaukeeWheatlandWhitefish BayWhitewaterWilliams BayWind PointYorkville
Municipality Type (Required) CityVillageTown For our reference, have you notified the municipality of this request? YesNo
Project Name
Project Description (required) (e.g. a system of four 8” public sewers to serve a proposed residential development that will connect to the existing public sewer on Main Street)
Environmental Information Are there wetlands present on the property? If you answered "yes," show wetlands using an orange line on plans/map. Include Wetland Delineation Report/Exemption Letter with submittal if available. YesNo
Is there an environmental corridor present on the property? If yes, select corridor type below. If a Primary Environmental Corridor is present on the property, show all PEC lines using a green line on submitted plans/map. Include Environmental Corridor Delineation Report/Concurrence letter with submittal if available. YesNo
Primary Secondary Isolated Unknown
Is there a 100-year floodplain located on the property? If you answered "yes," show floodplain boundaries on submitted plans and/or map. YesNo
Is the proposed extension and the lands it is to serve located within the adopted sewer service area (SSA) as set forth in the local SSA Plan? YesNo
Please be aware that should an environmental corridor be located within the project area, that a field delineation of it may be suggested by Commission staff. More importantly however, if the current environmental corridor mapping is particularly old and out-of-date, or if any development and/or land disturbing activity would be proposed to encroach into the environmental corridor, then a field delineation would be recommended. Furthermore, please be aware that the Commission maps two types of environmental corridors—Inventory Environmental Corridors and Planned Environmental Corridors, and it is the Planned Environmental Corridors described below which are recommended to be utilized in the review of sanitary sewer extensions. Planned Environmental Corridors are those PECs, SECs, and INRAs that are identified and mapped in adopted sanitary sewer service area plans. The environmental corridor delineations found in these plans have typically been adjusted to reflect other/older field delineations, the presence of certain farmed wetlands and farmed floodlands, and have been subjected to local review and comment.
Required Application Materials Please submit the following with your application:
Required Actions I have emailed all required application materials to WQM-Review@sewrpc.org.
I hereby submit a request for a water quality management (WQM) or 208 review by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. I understand a $750 service fee applies, and I will receive a service agreement for my signature. I acknowledge that for Commission staff to initiate a review, I must have provided all Required Application Materials, the $750 payment, and the signed service agreement.
Thank you for your submission.
Upon receipt of a complete submittal and $750 service fee, the WQM/208 conformance review and issuance of a letter will typically be completed within two to four business weeks. Please be aware that unusually large volumes of such requests, or the presence of environmentally sensitive areas (typically Primary Environmental Corridors (PECs), Secondary Environmental Corridors (SECs), or Isolated Natural Resource Areas (INRAs)), within the route of the proposed sewer(s), or within the area to be served by the proposed sewer(s), may result in longer review timeframes. In particular, if the development and/or the associated land disturbing activities to be served by the proposed sewer(s) would encroach into any PEC, or into the lowland (wetland, floodplain, riparian buffer, and adjacent steep slope) portions of any SEC or INRA, it is likely that longer review timeframes and additional information will be needed. In these cases, Commission staff will contact you as soon as possible to let you know of this situation and what additional information will be needed.