MMSD: Sinking the Ships of Commerce?

This should be a lot of fun to watch:

Downtown is sinking, and that's causing widespread property damage, according to a lawsuit poised to go to a jury trial next week.

The building owners blame the leaky deep-tunnel system, the keystone of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's $3 billion public works project aimed at cleaning up local waterways.

District lawyers call the allegations innuendo and half-truths.

...the dispute focuses strictly on the five buildings that make up Boston Store between Old World 3rd St. and N. 4th St. on W. Wisconsin Ave. - the verdict could influence whether owners of other downtown Milwaukee buildings suffering from similar symptoms decide to seek similar solutions.

Boston Store building owners counter that the district has a "history of irresponsible conduct" that includes misrepresentation of facts and failing to alert property owners of problems the district knew existed. They say the district avoided fixing the problems to hold down costs. The district, they say, also misled the public on the both the short-term and long-term effects of the tunnel work on the groundwater.

And people say that bloggers overuse purple prose!