Building sustainability and resilience in Wisconsin communities
Our green infrastructure projects in Milwaukee and beyond support local sustainability efforts, especially around reducing water pollution, fighting environmental injustice, strengthening community resilience to climate change impacts, and improving environmental health. We work through partnerships with local government offices and agencies, including the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), as well as through various coalitions and collaboration with community and neighborhood organizations.
Clean Wisconsin began our green infrastructure work around Milwaukee’s 30th Street Corridor in 2014 to help address stormwater issues that have challenged businesses and residents in the area for decades. Climate change will only make these challenges worse without significant investment in stormwater infrastructure. Catastrophic flooding in July 2010 caused $32 million dollars in damage to local businesses, the loss of 250 jobs, and hundreds of basement back-ups in people’s homes. Since then, MMSD and the City of Milwaukee have invested in flood-mitigation strategies, including three large stormwater detention basins to hold rainwater and allow it to drain slowly to Lincoln Creek. The green infrastructure Clean Wisconsin has worked with residents to install complement these larger flood management projects to reduce flood risk and stormwater pollution.
Since 2014, in partnership with MMSD, we have engaged thousands of residents, installed more than 700 rain barrels, 63 rain gardens, along with other practices—an estimated 50,000 gallons of stormwater capacity – which then captures about 2.45 million gallons of stormwater over the course of a year. These efforts support MMSD’s 2035 goal of capturing the first half inch of rain in green infrastructure across the 28-municipality MMSD service area, as laid out in their Regional Green Infrastructure Plan.
Scaling up green infrastructure in the Milwaukee area and across the state requires all stakeholders to understand its multiple benefits, the best practices for their site, and how to successfully fund and install green infrastructure. Clean Wisconsin has now organized multiple workshops for potential implementers of green infrastructure, from residents, community organizations, and houses of worship, to municipalities, developers, and businesses. The workshops present an important opportunity for people to learn about regulatory changes and funding opportunities, and they provide a critical learning opportunity for potential implementers of green infrastructure to learn about it from their peers.
Green infrastructure practices continue to gain popularity and are increasingly used on private and public property to help manage rainwater where it falls, reducing stormwater pollution and flood risk. However, these practices remain relatively new, and many local zoning, stormwater, landscaping, and other municipal codes and ordinances must be updated to enable and encourage the use of green infrastructure. Clean Wisconsin, in partnership with MMSD, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, Birchline Planning, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, helps municipalities update their codes and ordinances to both allow and better integrate the use of green infrastructure in our urban and suburban landscapes.
Clean Wisconsin is partnering with Milwaukee Water Commons to hold regular meetings environmental justice leaders, stakeholders and Evers Administration officials to help uplift underrepresented voices around environmental justice issues and prioritize actions for advocacy. Some of those priorities include: creation of a statewide Office of Environmental Justice, continued work to ensure clean drinking water in both urban and rural areas, and investing in workforce development to improve water infrastructure and to transition our energy and transportation systems to confront the climate crisis.
Our shared leadership of the roundtable helps us to prioritize aspects of our program work to best support environmental justice initiatives statewide and determine how we can most effectively engage in both local and state-level policy decisions relevant to environmental justice.
Our Milwaukee Program Director Pamela Ritger de la Rosa serves on the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity (CCTFCEE), chairing the Green Buildings and Climate Resilience Work Groups, and is an active participant in the Transportation and Mobility Work Group. The work groups have been developing Milwaukee-specific policy and project recommendations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 while increasing economic equity. We are excited to be involved in development of these local policies and projects, the implementation of which can be furthered by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act investments to the local level.
Some of the policy and project recommendations in development include aligning lead paint abatement and energy efficiency in underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods, a 20% reduction in vehicle miles traveled through investments in transit and bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and transition to a net zero electric grid. We look forward to continuing our leadership on the Task Force to help implement the Milwaukee Climate and Equity Plan.
