e-Newsletter | 10/18/2012

You don't always see the real impacts of a law, but, here in Milwaukee, salmon are swimming up our rivers.  A fisherman caught the world record brown trout in our harbor.  Lake Michigan and our rivers are driving economic development.  People are swimming, kayaking, and boating.  Runners, walkers, and bikers flock to the waterways.  Lake Michigan is cleaner.  

What we see in Milwaukee is happening all over the United States: the result of one of the most successful pieces of federal legislation ever passed, the Clean Water Act.

The Act turns 40 today and, like any birthday, it is a time to celebrate.  We should also pause to thank all those Milwaukee individuals who implemented the improvements called for by the Act.  They took the long view and their vision resulted in a water reclamation system that cleans more than 98% of the water that enters it.  Though, as written in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Forty years on, the nation cannot rest on the success of the Clean Water Act,”; therefore, we must set our sights on the future. 

We must take the long view so that our kids and grandkids can have a better water environment than we have.  My view on what this means is grouped in a four-pronged approach:

1. Continue to try to clean every last drop of water that enters the MMSD system; 
2. Improve our stormwater management systems so that we further reduce the flooding in our neighborhoods; 
3. Revitalize the river ecosystem to improve the watersheds health; and 
4. Develop a cooperative approach to reduce the polluted stormwater runoff from our urban areas and neighboring farms.

All these efforts will take a collaborative effort to be successful.  They will need to be focused on the entire watershed.  Perhaps the next big audacious goal should be to pass a Clean Watershed Act that will foster this collaboration.

Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District

260 W. Seeboth Street | Milwaukee, WI 53204