Municipalities Honored for First-of-its-Kind Effort to Clean Up Menomonee River

Sweet Water, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust Inc., honored 11 municipalities Thursday for their work to improve water quality in the Menomonee River by formally adopting Wisconsin’s first watershed-based stormwater permit.

“Today is a day to celebrate the work of 11 municipalities who are making history by joining together in the fight to clean up the Menomonee River,” said Nancy Frank, Chair of Sweet Water, in a news release. “For decades, our permitting system has been limited by political boundaries. By adopting Wisconsin’s first watershed-based permit, these communities will not only improve the quality of the Menomonee River, but also set an innovative model for communities across our state.”

According to Eric Nitschke, Southeast Region Director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, “A watershed-based permit offers a promising geographically-based approach for permitting discharges of storm water. We hope that our support of this successful pilot project, one of just three Environmental Protection Agency pilots in the country, offers new cost-effective water quality alternatives for Menomonee River communities.”

The Clean Water Act requires municipalities to operate with a stormwater permit, a document approved by the DNR that creates a plan for reducing pollution running off streets and urban areas during rain events. As opposed to the traditional permit system where each municipality works alone to reduce pollution, a watershed-based permit allows communities to work together and pool resources and information to more cost-effectively reduce pollution.

Joyce Foundation Environment Program Officer Molly Flanagan heralded the new permit system as a “model for collaboration and problem-solving that could become a model for the rest of the country.”

Representatives from the 11 municipalities joined the DNR, Joyce Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), Sweet Water, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, and other supporters at MMSD headquarters in Milwaukee this morning to celebrate the accomplishment.  The municipalities to receive awards include the Cities of Brookfield, Milwaukee, Greenfield and Wauwatosa; the Villages of Butler, Elm Grove, Germantown, West Allis, West Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls, and Milwaukee County.

“By signing onto the watershed-based permit, we’re confident that we can improve water quality in the Menomonee River and help save taxpayer dollars by reducing costs,” said City of Brookfield Public Works Director Tom Grisa.   “It’s a win-win.”