Cooperator: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Project Chief: David J. Graczyk and Judith C. Thomas
Location: Milwaukee County and parts of Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, and Racine Counties
Project Number: 9KP46
Period of Project: February 2001–Continuing
Problem
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) has a watercourse improvement program that is designed to integrate flood control with habitat and water-quality protection and enhancement. The MMSD Corridor Study will compile and collect historical and existing hydrologic, geographic, physical, biological, and chemical data for perennial streams and selected intermittent watercourses and their adjacent corridors within the MMSD planning area. The data will be used to help identify existing waterway limitations, and to evaluate and forecast the potential impacts or improvements from watercourse modifications. The MMSD Corridor Study is a cooperative effort between many local, state, and federal agencies that are represented on the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is made up of members from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and others.
Objective
The primary objectives of the MMSD Corridor study include: (1) evaluating historic impacts and forecasting potential impacts of planned MMSD projects, (2) creating a comprehensive inventory of corridor conditions, (3) establishing a baseline assessment of existing watercourse and corridor conditions,
(4) determining the existing and potential water-use objectives for watercourse reaches, (5) following up on flood control, habitat and water-quality improvement or protection projects to verify anticipated results, evaluate current technologies, and identify adjustments for future projects, and (6) providing long-term surveillance of stream and corridor conditions to monitor project impacts, track changes in impaired and unimpaired reaches, provide additional inventory information, and allow early detection of newly impaired reaches.
Approach
There is a three-phase approach to the MMSD Corridor study. Phase I will include the development of a data warehouse and evaluation of analytical procedures. A data warehouse will be compiled from different data sets with the purpose of assembling data from within the corridor study area. The assembled data will then be analyzed to summarize existing conditions and identify data gaps and future data needs. Phase II will consist of a baseline inventory of water-quality conditions in the MMSD study area. An intensive data-collection and analysis effort will be made to fill in data gaps and update historic data to define the existing characteristics of the watercourses and corridors and serve as the basis for future impact evaluations and trend analyses. Phase III will be the development of a long-term inventory of water-quality data and maintenance of the data warehouse. The data collected as part of field activities and the data maintained in the data warehouse will be used to assess future impacts, measure the benefits of watercourse modifications and other watershed management efforts, and detect new watercourse concerns or impairments.
Progress (July 2003–June 2004)
Milestones for this period include: the publication of the MMSD Retrospective Report and database compilation. Continued meetings with the Steering Committee and incorporation of their comments in the Phase II Work plan. Fifteen surface-water sites and six harbor sites were selected to sample quarterly and limited events to establish baseline conditions in the planning area and to fill in data gaps. Three new gaging stations were installed, and 4 sites had ISCO automatic water-quality samplers installed with Hydrolab continuous monitor probes. MMSD Staff were trained in collection of samples from the harbor; harbor samples are collected by MMSD and processed by the USGS. Samples were collected during ice cover conditions, “ice-melt” conditions (first event) and spring baseflow during this period. Sites were selected to have in-stream sediment samplers installed.
Plans (July 2004–June 2005)
In-stream sediment samplers will be installed at 14 sites. A summer high-flow event will be sampled and quarterly water-quality sampling will be continued at all 21 sites. Five to 10 events will be sampled at four locations (Milwaukee River at Cedarburg and Milwaukee, Kinnickinnic River at Milwaukee and the Menomonee River at Wauwatosa, Wis.). Samples will be collected with ISCO water-quality samplers and be analyzed for suspended sediment, total phosphorus, and chloride. For two of the planned events, sampling will be coordinated with an ongoing study done in cooperation with SEWRPC. A more extensive list of parameters will be analyzed. Biological sampling, including fish, algae, and benthic invertebrates and habitat survey will be conducted at the 15 surface-water sites late in the summer of 2004.
Reports
Schneider, M.S., Lutz, M.A. and others, 2003, Water-resources related information for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District planning area, 1970−2002: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 03−4240, 288 p.
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