MMSD Continues Its Environmental Initiatives

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will always have its PR problems because of occasional overflows - - and it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to continue to minimize them - - but there is less notice for its forward-looking stormwater mitigation and environmental initiatives that help the region's ecosystem

This small item from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel deserves wider distribution:

"MMSD donates land to DNR for wildlife area

"The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has donated 63.7 acres of wetland, grassland and woods along Ryan Creek in Franklin to the state Department of Natural Resources.

"The property, which extends from S. 116th St. west to the north shore of a 30-acre body of water known locally as Dumke's Pond, will become part of the DNR's Big Muskego Lake Wildlife Area in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties.

"MMSD acquired the parcel this year at a cost of $434,273 for its Greenseams flood control program.

"The district will retain a conservation easement on the property to ensure future state land management activities are compatible with regional flood management goals.

"The DNR had awarded MMSD a $197,500 grant from the state stewardship fund in July to help pay the purchase price."