VIROQUA, Wis. — Because heavy rains threatened to swell the municipal wastewater system beyond capacity, the city released 18,000 gallons of sewage into a tributary of the Kickapoo River. There was no choice, ghe city said: Otherwise sewers would back up into homes and businesses. The Kickapoo empties into the Wisconsin. River, then the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. In an unsigned message to the public, je city said there there was no choice. The message noted that contaminants would be diluted by heavy runoffs in the Kickapoo watershed. Viroqua itself received sjx inches of rain the night July i. The question being asked around Viroqua, population 4,500 — and also downriver — was why city leaders have dallied in updating the city’s water management system.
