About a mile of Honey Creek in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa is scheduled to be the next local waterway to have its concrete streambed ripped out and replaced with a more natural channel.
A coalition of government agencies is promising the roughly $15 million project will reduce the risk of flooding, look better, and bring improved habitat for fish and other species.
But humans have some questions.
Marty Weigel now lives in West Allis but grew up in Wauwatosa, not far from Honey Creek. He says he has pleasant memories of the waterway.
“It was where we played after school, unstructured playtime. Playing in the woods with our friends, family, you know, it was part of what we did growing up," Weigel says.
Weigel played along a Honey Creek that had a concrete streambed and stream bank.
Something that still exists.
The concrete was put in 60 years ago during a period when it was thought that the best way to reduce flooding on several local rivers and creeks was to speed the water out of the area.
In engineer-speak, the idea was to boost conveyance capacity. But sometimes that just caused worse flooding downstream. And during dry periods, left a lot of ugly concrete exposed.
In the last three decades, water engineers and others have come to think that going back to a more naturalized channel, with native plants and trees along the stream bank, is the better option. That’s happened along part of Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa, the Kinnickinnic River in Milwaukee’s Pulaski Park, and a few other locations.
Now, senior project manager Mark Mittag of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) says it’s time to go back to the natural look for Honey Creek — between roughly Wisconsin Lutheran High School and a little ways before the creek flows into the Menomonee River.
“So, it helps us from taking care of this legacy infrastructure, which, in retrospect, wasn’t the best idea at the time — paving the channels of rivers and creeks in the Milwaukee area. So, we’re sort of righting the wrong of the past. But it also helps MMSD in terms of just managing water — making sure floodwaters are managed in the creeks. Not going into sanitary sewers, so it stays out of wastewater plants and we maintain the capacity to treat the wastewater," Mittag says.
Mittag says a portion of the Honey Creek project also includes fixing a very eroded non-concrete stream bank closer to Hart Park.
Local MMSD customers would pay about a third of the roughly $15 million cost. The federally-funded U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would pick up the rest. Corps’ project manager Tom Kanies says there would be other gains besides water management.
“Invasive species and plants removed, with native plantings done. And then we’re taking out in the concrete channel, which has large steps that prevent fish passage. So, with a naturalized stream, that would allow fish passage from downstream to upstream," Kanies says.
The Honey Creek project is being paired with state and local plans to put in a new bridge over the waterway on Wisconsin Ave. The bridge work is likely to start this year with the Creek restoration possibly next year.
At a recent public information meeting, some parents asked questions about the future of creekside paths to local schools, and detours kids might face during construction. Nearby homeowners mentioned construction noise.
Milwaukee resident Tiffani Hart — while happy about Honey Creek habitat restoration — says she’s worried about potential loss of trees near the water.
“It just concerns me that they might be taking down, from the pictures that they showed, taking down more trees than are necessary. I’m assuming that’s for construction pathways, which I don’t think our city does the greatest job of mitigating tree removal. That definitely concerns me," Hart says.
Project officials acknowledge tree loss is likely but say some of those are invasive. The officials say they’re also working with Milwaukee County, which controls the property along Honey Creek.
The MMSD is taking comments and questions about the project on its website.
