The Real Water Park!

Sweet Water, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, kicked off its new public awareness campaign yesterday - with a splash!

 Milwaukee alderman Nic Kovac gets wet in a dunk tank specially decorated for the occasion.

With Greenfield Park's Cool Waters for a backdrop, a boatload of officials announced the campaign slogan, "The Real Water Park." It's a fantastic idea. The real water park is not a fenced pool with water slides and jets of spray. The real water parks are our natural waterways, lakes and ponds - an idea that comes quite naturally to Urban Wilderness!

Sweet Water's Jeff Martinka, surrounded by bags of fertilizer and facsimilies of dog poop, led off the program.


The simulated poop and fertilizer were there to represent two of the most common concerns for our natural water parks, pollution from "non-point sources," including you and me. A major feature of the campaign is to bring the public up to date on the main causes of water pollution, which has changed over the years from clearly identifiable industrial "point sources" to more widespread run off from streets, lawns, and farms.

The next speaker, Tom Grisa, the Brookfield Director of Public Works, dramatized the issue by wearing a pair of swim goggles as he suggested that no one would swim in Cool Waters if they knew there was dog poop floating around in the pool. It isn't a giant leap of logic to observe that we should all be just as intolerant of common pollutants like dog poop and fertilizer getting into our rivers and lakes.

Wisconsin, which invented the idea, has led the nation when it comes to water parks. Here is an archival image of one of the earliest water parks at Gordon Park on the Milwaukee River in 1921. A large lake was created behind the North Avenue dam, enabling Milwaukeeans to have a taste of the country just minutes away from downtown.

Milwaukee and its rivers have changed a lot since 1921. Pollution made swimming unappealing and then downright dangerous. Then came the Clean Water Act and other environmental reforms of the 1970's. By the 1990's, when the North Avenue dam was finally removed, it once again was possible to envision the river as a recreational resource. This is a current view of the Milwaukee River near Gordon Park.

The highlight of yesterday's festivities was the dunk tank, which also was filled with (simulated) dog poop. After alderman Kovac (above), Neil Palmer, Village President of Elm Grove, took a turn. Former Brewer Jerry Augustine made the pitches.

One of the unfortunate side effects of excessive fertilizer getting into the waterways is an unhealthy build up of algae in ponds and lakes. I didn't have to go far after the ceremony to see an example. This pond, completely covered with a thick mat of algae, is right in Greenfield Park. The ducks that I discovered lingering along the edges did not swim away from me as I approached the bank. They flew off instead.

The Sweet Water website is beautiful, engaging, and also filled with helpful tips on how you can help minimize your own impact on our real water parks so that they will be healthy and appealing places to enjoy.

Sent DOT your Comments about Zoo Interchange plans

Friends of the Monarch Trail and the Milwaukee County Grounds:

This is an update to my last post regarding a public hearing on the plans for Zoo Interchange reconstruction that could destroy valuable acreage along the Monarch Trail on the County Grounds. The public hearing has concluded but there is still time to send public comments to the Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation (DOT). Contact info below.

Dianne Dagalen, conservation chair of the local Sierra Club group, was interviewed on Lake Effect. I recommend listening to her compelling arguments, which you can do by clicking on this link.


The DOT does listen to the public! After viewing the new plans, it was clear to me that comments from the last public hearing, about a year ago, had affected the current plans - positively, I thought. They are still debating whether to widen the freeways to 8 lanes or keep the current 6 lanes (or, if not debating, at least both are still on the table.) Please urge them not to add lanes. (Experience elsewhere has demonstrated that larger freeways create larger traffic problems and do not relieve congestion in the long run.) 

DOT Stormwater proposals:

·               A three-acre toxic stormwater pond (instead of nectaring plants) to replace the South Berm of the Monarch Trail, with the surrounding wetlands filled in by excavation.

·               A five acre pond to replace the Oak Leaf Bike Trail at Underwood Creek Pkwy.

·               Four acres clear-cut for a pond on the historic Honey CreekParkway.

12 acres of county parkland may be lost to these ponds, which are designed to hold toxic runoff that salt and heavy metals from vehicle exhaust and brake wear. Furthermore, Milwaukee County taxpayers will be responsible for pond maintenance and liability.

There are alternatives: permeable pavement for highway shoulders, roadside swales

with catchment tunnels, underground cisterns, and bio-filtration fields.

Let DOT know that you don't want county parkland used for stormwater ponds.
> Come to the hearings and submit a DOT Comment Form.  > Mail a form from on-line: www.sefreeways.org

> Email your comments to: dotdtsdsezoo@dot.wi.gov or
> Fax them to: 262-548-5662. 
Deadline:  Comments must be postmarked by April 4, 2011.

All Wisconsin residents may comment on the Zoo Interchange.

If you have questions contact Dianne Dagelen, Sierra Club Conservation Chair:

ddagelen@sbcglobal.net

414-771-1505

The Monarch Trail in bloom

To see more images of the Monarch Trail and County Grounds, click here.

Zoo Interchange Public Hearing

Friends of the Monarch Trail and the Milwaukee County Grounds:

The reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange is imminent. The Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation (DOT) is holding two days of public hearings about their plans for this huge project on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Please plan to attend one of them and voice your concern for the preservation of wildlife habitat. The plans include the proposed creation of stormwater detention ponds for runoff from the freeway.

The following information was provided by Dianne Dagalen of the Sierra Club.

DOT Stormwater proposals:

·               A three-acre toxic stormwater pond (instead of nectaring plants) to replace the South Berm of the Monarch Trail, with the surrounding wetlands filled in by excavation.

·               A five acre pond to replace the Oak Leaf Bike Trail at Underwood Creek Pkwy.

·               Four acres clear-cut for a pond on the historic Honey Creek Parkway.

12 acres of county parkland may be lost to these ponds, which are designed to hold toxic runoff that salt and heavy metals from vehicle exhaust and brake wear. Furthermore, Milwaukee County taxpayers will be responsible for pond maintenance and liability.

There are alternatives: permeable pavement for highway shoulders, roadside swales

with catchment tunnels, underground cisterns, and bio-filtration fields.

Let DOT know that you don't want county parkland used for stormwater ponds.
> Come to the hearings and submit a DOT Comment Form. 
> Mail a form from on-line: www.sefreeways.org

> Email your comments to: dotdtsdsezoo@dot.wi.gov or
> Fax them to: 262-548-5662.
Deadline:  Comments must be postmarked by April 4, 2011.

All Wisconsin residents may comment on the Zoo Interchange.

ZOO  INTERCHANGE  PUBLIC  HEARING

Tues., March 22nd (2-7pm)  
Wed., March 23rd (4-8pm)

Tommy Thompson Youth Center 
640 N. 84th St.

West Allis State Fair Park, gate #5.

If you have questions contact Dianne Dagelen, Sierra Club Conservation Chair:

ddagelen@sbcglobal.net

414-771-1505

view of Eschweiler Buildings from the Monarch Trail

To see more images of the Monarch Trail and County Grounds, click here.

Green Rivers

Do you know what color your river is today?

I had read that the the sewers were being tested, but it still came as a shock when I happened upon the acid green waters in a neighborhood creek that carries run off into the Menomonee River. I imagine that anyone who didn’t know what was happening would be more than shocked. In fact, I’ve gotten emails from folks that were disturbed as well as curious. (I guess I’m ready-reference now for the rivers! I’m flattered. But, for anyone who doesn’t already know this, the person who really knows all about this stuff is our Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Cheryl Nenn.) The obnoxiously bright green is harmless dye deliberately introduced into drains by the City of Wauwatosa to detect what is called infiltration and inflow, which is supposed to help them track down where actual pollution is coming from. I hope it works!

To read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about the testing and the flooding that precipitated it, go to "Tosa sewer test finds big leaks in home laterals."

For more information contact Milwaukee Riverkeeper.