Heavy rains hammered our region this week, causing pressure on the MMSD sewage treatment plant, which couldn’t keep up with the demand. As a result, the MMSD discharged water and sewage — they haven't yet said how much — into area rivers to prevent wastewater from backing up into basements.
For decades, the MMSD has been working to reduce the so-called “combined sewer overflows” through the use of its Deep Tunnel system and flood management projects. But climate change is challenging engineered strategies with increased sporadic and sometimes torrential rains.
MMSD hopes a strategy that relies on nature will be a piece of a resilient management solution.
At Currie Park Golf Course off Mayfair Road, the Menomonee River could be heard. It meanders through the golf course—now it’s taken over. This is just one place and one example of flooding caused by the rains this week.
A half-hour drive southeast in Oak Creek, more of the storm’s impact can be felt.
"The trees out there, that’s Oak Creek. It has flooded over its banks. This is about sixty acres of land that is all flooded," says Kristin Schultheis, a senior project planner with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
Just south, Ryan Road has been barricaded due to high water. Schultheis says a century or more of development — our roads, homes, everything we pave and build on — gave stormwater no place to go.
"That then adds stresses to river systems and to areas downstream like Milwaukee and all of our surrounding communities," she says.
But Schultheis says 40 of the flooded acres are part of a solution. "We are looking at a Greenseams property we acquired. All of it was in agricultural land, and a year after we acquired it, we took 20 acres and restored it back to prairie in partnership with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service," Schultheis says.
MMSD launched its Greenseams program in 2001. Schultheis says a $24 million investment resulted in "almost 5,400 acres — either in acquisitions or through land conservation easements. So the majority under easements, and we estimate these lands have the capacity to store over 3 billion gallons of water," she says.
Greenseams is one of multiple strategies MMSD is using to address flood risk—for example, $400 million worth of urban projects—including massive stormwater retention and levee systems.
Together, they handle a small fraction of Greenseams' capacity at a far higher price — 315 million gallons, compared to Greenseams’ three billion gallon capacity.
Schultheis says Greenseams' goal is to protect at least 10,000 acres throughout the region.
"Natural areas that contain wetlands, floodplains, woodlands, shorelands; any of the those naturally occurring features that already do the work of storing floodwater and it’s throughout the entire Milwaukee, Menomonee, Root River and Oak Creek watersheds. And then you have all the co-benefits of open space, habitat, water quality," Schultheis says. "Yeah, you can’t beat it."
Schultheis thinks more people are beginning to come around to the idea. "I was at an event in Washington County, all for farmers. I described to the whole crew; there were probably about 75 farmers there; this is what we’re doing, this is why we need to preserve these sites," Schulthuis says. Afterward, several farmers approached her.
"They said, now I get it. Now I understand what you do, what you’re trying to do and we understand the importance to preserve these sites, to preserve these hydric soils," Schultheis says.
Birds wing by and a muskrat makes an appearance along the water’s edge. Schultheis hopes more people come to embrace what she considers Greenseams’ clear and tangible benefits.
There are local groups looking for environmental solutions to prevent flooding and the need for overflow dumping. The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission is one of them. It partners with MMSD to work towards flooding solutions especially as weather becomes more unpredictable.
Note: The on-air story incorrectly stated Greenseams was launched in 2002 rather than 2001.
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