Milwaukee has turned toxic legacy into civic asset with river cleanups

• Milwaukee is nearing completion of a 50-year effort to clean up its rivers and harbor.
• A new Dredge Materials Management Facility will store toxic sediment from the Milwaukee Estuary.
• The project aims to highlight Milwaukee’s transformation from industrial past to a city focused on its water resources.

Milwaukee should rightfully be proud of how it has restored its rivers and reoriented itself to the water. A 50-year transformation is nearly complete. And as we mark the final stage of removing contamination from our rivers and harbor, we have a rare opportunity not only to finish the job but to tell the world what we’ve accomplished.

Right now, just off I-794 at the Port of Milwaukee, you can see new land taking shape. This is the Dredge Materials Management Facility, a crucial part of that story. It’s being built to contain more than one million cubic yards of toxic sediment from the Milwaukee Estuary — a federally designated Area of Concern since the 1980s. Within two years, that contaminated material will be safely sealed away.

This is not just another piece of industrial infrastructure. It is the culmination of decades of public and private investment, set in motion by the 1972 Clean Water Act. With this final dredging push, Milwaukee’s waterways are poised to be removed from the national list of toxic hotspots — a milestone worth celebrating.

Let’s turn treatment plant into civic and educational space

So, here’s a fanciful proposal: let’s make this infrastructure public-facing. Let’s turn the soon to be built treatment plant — needed to cleanse the water involved in the hydraulic dredging process — into an educational and civic space. Build it near the new cruise ship terminal on the southern tip of the port.

Use the clean water to irrigate a wetland bird habitat as a feature of the terminal. Add a visitor center to tell the story. Want to make it even more Milwaukee? Add a public beer garden. A water treatment plant with a reflecting pool full of migratory birds and beer on tap. What could be more fitting?

I’ve spent the past year thinking about this opportunity as the Water Policy Fellow at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Perhaps surprisingly, I’m not a scientist or policy expert, but a Professor of Architecture interested in how cities like Milwaukee can turn toxic legacies into civic assets.

When I moved here in 1994, the downtown Riverwalk was already reclaiming the riverfront from its industrial past. The North Avenue Dam had just been removed. The Deep Tunnel Project was dramatically reducing sewer overflows. Fish were returning. Later came the transformation of the Menomonee Valley and ongoing re-naturalization of the Kinnickinnick River.