Robert Ledebuhr rolls over the the seedums that were planted on top of the Central Library in downtown Milwaukee in 2010 after the green roof was installed with a grant from the MMSD. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Buoyed by tougher regulations and $5 billion in improvements, the Milwaukee River is cleaner and more valuable economically and ecologically than at any point in the past 100 years. But challenges remain. Go to section

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What possibly could the cities of Brookfield and Oak Creek, Alverno College, Miller Park, All Peoples Church, Lakefront Brewery, R&K Cudahy Storage and Milwaukee County Parks have in common?

They are among 21 communities, schools, churches and businesses planning to install rain capturing projects — from rooftop gardens and porous pavement to cisterns, wetlands and roadside swales — with a financial assist from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

All Peoples Church on N. 2nd St. will use a cistern with a solar-powered pump to collect rain for a 30-tree fruit orchard, as well as a rain garden to prevent storm water from flowing into the street.

Brookfield will place 23,600 square feet of porous pavement sidewalk along the west side of 124th St., between Burleigh Road and Capitol Drive, as part of a road and sewer reconstruction project. The pavement will allow water to seep into soil.

The Milwaukee County Parks Department will capture storm water with artificial wetlands, swales and rain gardens when it reconstructs 4.6 miles of the Menomonee River Parkway beginning this year in Wauwatosa and Milwaukee.

The sewerage district labels such projects as green infrastructure. MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer describes the strategy as managing rainwater where it falls.

"If we can manage the water on the surface, it will help us reduce sewer overflows and improve water quality in the rivers," Shafer said.

If all 21 projects succeed as planned, they will collect nearly 3.5 million gallons of rain in a storm and keep the flow out of sewers.

MMSD has proposed awarding the 21 public and private property owners a total of $1.35 million in grants to help pay up to 50% of the cost of each project. The district's commission will act on the plan at a June 23 meeting.

The district's goal is to encourage property owners throughout the metropolitan area to build 740 million gallons' worth of storage capacity by 2035. The volume is 42% more than the deep tunnel system storage capacity of 521 million gallons.

'Fresh Coast 740'

The program is known as Fresh Coast 740, and the district estimates it will distribute $1.3 billion over the next 20 years in grants to its green infrastructure partners.

"It's really starting to gain momentum," Shafer said.

A record number of 31 green infrastructure grant applications came in this year. After staff trimmed the list to 21, Shafer approved 16 of the projects with grants between $3,460 and $74,774.

The Miller Park Stadium District was awarded $57,300 to help pay costs of installing three large cisterns, each with a capacity of 1,500 gallons, on the plaza outside the stadium. The cisterns will store rain draining from the stadium's 8.5-acre roof so the water can be used to irrigate flowers and plots of trees, shrubs and grass planted around the parking lots and walkways.

The commission is being asked to approve the five largest grants.

Milwaukee County Parks would receive $227,000 for its Menomonee River Parkway project, subject to commission approval.

Lakefront Brewery has proposed buying two lots at W. Canal St. and S. 7th St., at the South Menomonee Canal, for a new brewery. When that is done, the brewery would be awarded $231,974 to install a series of green infrastructure on the 9-acre property.

Storm water flowing off parking lots would enter a long swale connected to a rain garden. The system will prevent the water from draining to a combined sanitary and storm sewer there, and reduce pollutants in storm water draining to the canal, a tributary of the Menomonee River.

For MMSD, the year 2035 also is the deadline the district has given itself to achieve no sewer overflows. Since 1994, the first full year of deep tunnel system operation, the district has had an average of 2.4 overflows a year of combined sanitary and storm sewers in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood.

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