Heavy rains Aug.1 led the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to start a combined sewer overflow, to prevent basement backups.
It’s a measure MMSD also used last August, when a 1,000-year storm hit the area. It flooded more than 1,800 basements and caused millions of dollars in damage.
Efforts are underway to better withstand extreme weather, and the MMSD is a big part of that work.
Executive director Kevin Shafer says the district is picking up the pace on green infrastructure projects. Those store and absorb rainwater and help prevent flooding, including at Jackson Park.
“We are going to dredge the lagoon that's here, lower it a bit, to number one, get a lot of the contaminated sediments out of there, clean up the lagoon,” Shafer says.
Soccer fields currently are located north of the lagoon, on the other side of West Kinnickinnic Parkway. “We're also going to lower this entire park area…so that more water can flow in here during a storm,” Shafer continues.
Jackson Park is one of four flood management basin projects MMSD accelerated after the August 2025 storm.
"We accelerated this one [Jackson Park], 35th Street Basin — the first phase of that construction will start early next year as well. We've got the Wilson Park partnership with Milwaukee County that will start the planning for that basin. And then the Alro Steel Basin, we're doing final engineering on connection of that,” Shafer says.
He says speeding up the projects takes careful planning.
“We've just spent the last three months going through our budgets...looking at how we can re-juggle that," says Shafer. "And prioritize ones that really had to be done quickly and then delay some that didn't have to be [done] so quickly so that we could bring these projects forward."
He says flood management measures completed thus far — $630 million worth — have provided glimmers of hope.
"We have another $900 million of work to do, which is the work I just talked about, those basins. Plus we've got concrete-lined channels we need to remove, need to naturalize the waterways as much as possible," Shafer says. "That will help on the rivers, but we still have water that's sitting up in the neighborhoods, and it's got to find a way to get to the rivers...I think green infrastructure will help with that, which is a bioswale or a green roof or a porous pavement or a rain barrel or a rain garden — trying to manage that drop of water where it falls to infiltrate it into the ground and keep it out of basements, and maybe reduce it flooding downstream."
When asked what he would say to people worried about the next big storm, Shafer says he shares their concern.
“I think the first thing, anyone who owns a home or a business — is just walk around your property and see where you think that water is going to flow off of that property or not flow off that property," he says. "See if you can do something to try to manage that water that falls on your property...That may be a rain barrel, that may be rain garden...But try to manage that water where it falls. That may not help totally, but that will help a lot,” Shafer says.
Tending to basements makes a difference too, “But it's gonna be an effort to address this changing climate. It's gonna be an effort that's required from the property owner, the municipalities, MMSD, the state, the federal government. We have to work together on these things,” Shafer says.
_
