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Infusion of funds will push Milwaukee estuary cleanup forward

WUWM 89.7 FM | By Susan Bence

Published October 13, 2023 at 9:48 AM CDT

Crews have been at work for several months dredging portions of the Milwaukee estuary. The $450 million of funding announced Thursday will propel the project forward.

Thursday brought big news for Milwaukee from the federal government.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced more than $450 million to help remove contaminated sediments from Milwaukee’s harbor and its three rivers. The size of the area is the equivalent of 610 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

About 60% of the $450 million is coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is one of five non-federal sponsors covering the remaining 40%.

At an event held to announce the funding, MMSD executive director Kevin Shafer shared his take on the announcement’s significance.

Anglers fish below Kletzsch Park dam as fish passage construction continues along the Milwaukee River.

"In one month a new fish passage at Kletzsch Dam will be completed. In six months the construction of the dredged material management facility will begin, built to hold contaminated soils from our estuary. In three years a wetland will start to be formed in the Burnham Canal in the Menomonee Valley and the EPA will begin the final dredging of the estuary area of the contaminated soils," Shafer said. "So if the math holds true, in six years we will have restored and reversed the environmental sins that we caused over the last hundred years."

READ Contaminated sediment removal from Mlwaukee estuary impacts summer activity but leads to cleaner estuary

School of Freshwater Sciences student Pierce VanValkenburg led attendees in the 'mermaid promise'.

UWM School of Freshwater Sciences student Pierce VanValkenburg joined in the celebration. VanValkenburg welcomed EPA Administrator Michael Regan somewhat whimsically, yet, with a point.

"Now Administrator Regan you have taken your oath of office with Vice President Harris of the White House, have you ever taken the mermaid promise," VanValkenburg asked.

Van Valkenburg created a character, Mermaid Echo, to inspire children to become the next water stewards. VanValkenburg led Regan and the entire room in pledging, "To preserve the Great Lakes: Michigan, Superior, Ontario, Huron and Erie," Van Valkenburg said.

Mark Denning (left) speaking with EPA Administrator Michael Regan (right) at Thursday event in Milwaukee.

At least one person left Thursday’s celebration feeling something fundamental was missing.

Mark Denning is an enrolled member of the Oneida Tribe. He recently joined the Milwaukee Area of Concern community advisory committee. "I’m not here in that capacity, I came as a person that’s interested because I’m a Native person," Denning said.

Denning said Indigenous people have stewarded freshwater and Lake Michigan — visible just beyond this gathering space — since time immemorial.

He said that perspective wasn’t included in the celebration or in planning the cleanup itself.

"In no way was Indigenous presence visible or given a voice. And I hope that changes because today as an indigenous person it was difficult to watch. I celebrate the work, but to know Indigenous people have been left out of this is very hard to see," Denning said.

Looking forward, the biggest project will be to excavate contaminated sediments from the bottom of the estuary.

READ Groups work to remove contaminated sediment from Milwaukee estuary, aim to engage public

Final design of the facility to hold those sediments is now underway. It will take years to construct. Then, EPA crews will begin dredging those waterways.