After the Paris Olympics triathlon event was postponed because its Seine River was too polluted for safe swimming, Kevin Shafer, executive director of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District (MMSD), pointed out that the event could have been held safely in the downtown Milwaukee River.
He noted in a recent newsletter, “MMSD has a water quality monitoring program that routinely measures bacteria in the rivers, creeks, and Lake Michigan. The most recent sample taken from the Milwaukee River on July 1 had E. coli levels at 250 CFU (colony forming units)/100mL.
“According to European standards, the Seine River is declared swimmable if E. coli levels are below 900 CFU/100mL. Therefore, an Olympic triathlon would not be canceled if held in Milwaukee.”
People floating in inflatable rafts now a common sight on Milwaukee River. (Photo credit Kine Torinus, from video.)
The cleanup of the Milwaukee River has been remarkable. It revolved around the infamous Deep Tunnel system that cost $1 billion 30 years ago to handle overflow sewage after big rain events. That system consists of 19 miles of tunnels as deep as 300 feet underground. It took nine years to build.
Untreated wastewater overflows have been reduced of peaks of six times per year to one each in 2022 and 2023. The cleanup has also included the upgrade of municipal sewer plants upstream, better flood control and more aggressive management of farm manure runoff.
MMSD has been a partner with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust in preserving upstream sponge areas of the three Milwaukee River tributaries. Their efforts reduce overloads of undertreated Milwaukee effluent.
A recent E. coli level of the wastewater coming out of the West Bend treatment plant was an average of 126 CFU/100mL.
That’s well below Milwaukee levels and far below the filthy Seine River flowing through Paris. Well done, waste water managers.
West Bend native Nick Rusher brought home a bronze medal from Paris rowing in the “eights” on the Seine River. The river managers and keepers of the Milwaukee River in southeast Wisconsin deserve a gold medal for their clean river initiatives. The reduced contamination level makes the Milwaukee River upstream fishable and swimmable.
Downstream readings from the wastewater plant on West Bend’s east side should be even lower. These metrics should give the local river users confidence that it’s swimmable and fishable. People are fishing right downtown – don’t know if they eat them.
And have you noticed people in kayaks and inflated tubes floating down the river on hot summer days.
All good, but there still is more work to be done for our beautiful river.
