MILWAUKEE - You paid for it: the I-Team found taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars after a large dose of dangerous PCB's contaminated the sewer system. Last summer, PCB-tainted fertilizer, made by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District, wound up on Milwaukee Public Schools' ball fields. Now, MMSD thinks it knows where those PCB's came from. "Connection to the sewage system is a privilege," said MMSD attorney Tom Crawford. Connection is a privilege, because the district takes organic waste and turns it into tons and tons of Milorganite, a high-quality organic fertilizer -- and a cash cow. "This is a huge revenue for us," said Peter Topczewski, MMSD's Water Quality Protection Manager. "It offsets the rates that our users actually have to pay." But last summer, MMSD found a big load of Milorganite had too many PCB's, an industrial chemical banned by the Federal Government in the late 1970's. "PCB's are persistent, they're toxic, and they are a very problematic waste to get rid of," explained Crawford. That's why the district had a big problem when the PCB-tainted Milorganite ended up on MPS ball fields. "It's a suspected carcinogen, it has hormonal changes, reproductive problems, perhaps neurological problems in children, so it's not a nice material," warned Frank Schultz, Acting Air and Waste Leader for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Southeast Region. Between the cleanup costs and lost Milorganite sales, MMSD lost more than $4.5 million. "They are absolutely taxpayer dollars and user charges that get collected from everybody else who uses the system," said Crawford The sewer district spent nearly a year trying to figure out where the PCB's came from. It started by testing the main along the Milwaukee River, where cleaning crews may have kicked up PCB's encased in the organic buildup on the sewer's walls. "We have a very clear record now of what is upstream what is downstream where the hotspot is," Crawford said. "There is one hotspot." The hotspot: the old Milwaukee Die-Cast property on Milwaukee's north side. Over the years, PCB's from hydraulic fluid used in the plant's machines built up in sewer pipes. The DNR's file on the site is a foot thick -- full of contamination reports, cash settlement, and court-ordered cleanups. "We were never in full agreement with them that the job was complete, or that they have done enough work out there," Schultz said. MMSD finally dropped the hammer on the out-of-state property owners, George and Theresa Slyman of Ohio, when tests, taken this past spring, found pipes on the site actively leaking PCB's into the sewer system that feeds the district's Milorganite plant. "It's a very big deal," admitted Crawford. "This is the only source discharging PCB's to our sewer system that we have discovered so far." The district ordered the property owners to call in heavy equipment, excavate the pipes connected to the sewer main, and plug them up with concrete. However, the amount of PCB's inspectors found collecting in an old sump on behind the main building blew them away. "I was astonished at the level that we found in the sump," Crawford exclaimed. "The water was apparently almost oily it was so bad." To contain in, crews in protective suits had to clean it all out by hand with buckets. "This wasn't an easy task," said John Ruetz of Environmental Audits, Inc. "It's always an adventure." The federal government says anything that has a PCB level of more than 50 parts per million is toxic. The 100 gallons of muck crews pulled out of the old sump tested at 18,300 ppm. "No matter what it's got to get out of there, and that's really the bottom line," said Ruetz. The absentee-owner paid for crews to do that, this time. However, taxpayers are still on the hook for the $4.5 million the sewer district already lost. "You want the polluter to pay," said Crawford. "But you have to find the polluter and you have to find a deep pocket." Something, district officials say, the property owner doesn't have. The I-Team reached George Slyman by phone earlier this week. All he would say on the record is that he and Theresa Slyman are cooperating with MMSD Their latest efforts stopped the threat to the sewer system, the property itself is still contaminated and could cost million more to cleanup.