Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Corridor Study, Phase III
Project Number: 9KP46
Project Chief: David J. Graczyk
Project Topics: water quality, Brown County
Cooperators: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Period of Project: February 2001–Continuing
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Corridor Study data will be used to help identify existing waterway limitations, and to evaluate and forecast the potential impacts or improvements from watercourse modifications.
Problem
The Watercourse Corridor Study (CS) is a cooperative effort between the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and local Universities.
The participating parties are collecting and evaluating hydrologic, geographic, physical, biological, and chemical data for the major streams, and their adjacent corridors within MMSD planning area.
This information will subsequently be used by MMSD to attain their goals outlined in MMSD's Water Quality Monitoring Program and goals of MMSD's 2020 Facility Plan.
MMSD's Water Quality Monitoring Program goals include:
- To monitor the biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of aquatic ecosystems, within the MMSD's service area, to assess the impacts of watercourse improvement practices,
- To monitor the water quality of Lake Michigan harbors and local waterways within the MMSD service area,
- To provide physical, chemical, and biological data on the quality water, and sediment and how it relates to MMSD's operations and facilities and
- to maintain a historical water quality database.
Objectives
The primary objectives of the MMSD Corridor study include:
- evaluating historic impacts and forecasting potential impacts of planned MMSD projects,
- creating a comprehensive inventory of corridor conditions,
- establishing a baseline assessment of existing watercourse and corridor conditions,
- determining the existing and potential water-use objectives for watercourse reaches,
- 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
- 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.
Phase III
Phase III will consist of a long term water quality and quantity data collection effort to continue and expand work done in Phase II. A subset of the riverine and harbor sites will be part of a five year sample design.
Phase III will focus on the following topics to be addressed over the 5 year study.
- Continuation of biological community sampling which will include toxicity sampling utilizing Semi-Permeable Membrane Devices (SPMD's) at selected streams.
- Microbiological investigations which will include defining the relative magnitude and contribution of waterborne viruses from major sources on an annual basis, and defining the relative loading of Cryptosporidium and Giardia from different land uses and source areas within the urban landscape.
- Determinations of the level of toxicity present in the water column, pore water, and bed sediment of urban streams.
- Determination of the relative concentartions of and the fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP's) in the water column, bed sediment, biota, and post-treatment wastewater mixed with lake water.
- Continuous streamflow gaging at Lincoln Creek, Milwaukee River at Jones Island, Honey Creek, Root River at Grange Ave. and Little Menomonee River.
- Maintenance and enhacements of the MMSD CS database. This will include loading of additional datasets and enhancing user interfaces thru creation of canned queries, mapping and graphing applications.
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
Progress: October 2006- December 2006 1. Prepare report (Phase II) for Headquarters approval. 2. Installed virus sampling equipment at three sites. 3. Operated stream flow gages (5) in the MMSD service area. 4. Prepare stream flow and water quality records for inclusion in annual data report.
Progress: January 2007-March 2007 1. Send report to Headquarters for approval. 2. Operate stream flow gages in MMSD service area. 3. Collect a quarterly virus sample at 3 sites. 4. Presented an overview of the MMSD corridor study (Phase I, II and III) at Midwest Water Analyst Association (MWAA). 5. Plan upcoming field season: a. Stream toxicity b. Biological sampling and SPMDs. c. Virus sampling.
Progress: April 2007-June 2007 1: Resend report to headquartes for approval. 2: Operated streamflow gages in the MMSD service area. 3: Collected quarterly and event virus samples at 3 sites. 4: Collected stream toxicity data at 12 sites. 5: Meet with sub-project chiefs and develop a work plan for the rest of the water year.
Progress: June 2007-September 2007 1: Report approved by headquarters and sent to GPO for printing. 2: Operate streamflow gages in the MMSD service area. 3: Collect quarterly and event virus samples at 3 sites. 4: Collect stream toxicity samples at 6 sites after a rainfall event. 5: Meet with sub-project chiefs and develop a work plan for the rest of the water year
Progress: October 2007-December 2007 1: Report received from GPO and ditributed. 2: Operated streamflow gages in the MMSD service area. 3: Collected quarterly and event virus samples at 3 sites. 4: Meet with sub-project chiefs and develop a work plan for the rest of the water year.
Progress April 2006-June 2006 1. Signed agreement has been received from MMSD for the five-year period. 2. Collected samples for the Urban Toxicity study at three sites. 3. Started to develop virus sampling equipment. 4. Received report from MMSD colleague review and from editorial review. 5. Incorporated editorial and colleague review comments. 6. Sent report to Dale Robertson for the second colleague review.
Publications and 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.
Thomas, J.C., Lutz, M.A., Bruce, J.L., Graczyk, D.J., Richards, K.D., Krabbenhoft, D.P, Westenbroek, S.M., Scudder, B.C., Sullivan, D.J., and Bell, A.H., 2007, Water-quality characteristics for selected sites within the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Planning Area, Wisconsin, February 2004–September 2005: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2007–5084, 187 p.
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