The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is celebrating the completion of a massive structure designed to hold vast amounts of contaminated sediment that have plagued Milwaukee’s rivers and estuary for decades.
The Dredged Material Management Facility (DMMF) is along the lakefront, north of the Lake Express Ferry terminal. The DMMF was created by carving out and securing a 42-acre trapezoid-shaped chunk of lakebed along Milwaukee’s port.
MMSD executive director Kevin Shafer says construction was completed ahead of schedule and under the estimated price tag.
“So we built the bathtub — it’s ready to go now. And EPA is in the design phase right now to go in and start some of the dredging work along with the Department of Natural Resources,” Shafer says.
Shafer says it’ll be at least 20 years before the water-tight “bathtub” reaches full capacity.
“All of the sediments that are on the bottom of the rivers, they’re very wet. So, the Port of Milwaukee is building a water treatment facility to treat that water that comes to the top. We’ll pump that off and treat it, put that water back in the lake. But we’re estimating 20-25 years to have it dry enough that something could be done on top,” Shafer says.
Shafer says it’ll be up to the next generation to decide if it will become a park or serve some other purpose.
The project isn’t just good news for the future health of Milwaukee’s waters.
It’s also a lift for MMSD at a time it is facing intense scrutiny for the management of its two wastewater treatment plants.
