The Kinnickinnic River - Most Endangered or Most Improved?

Milwaukee Riverkeeper fought hard over the last couple of years to have the Kinnickinnic River recognized as one of the nation's "Most Endangered Rivers" and to advocate for an extensive cleanup effort.  The first leg of the cleanup was the recent dredging effort between Beecher and 1st St. led by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). 

That dredging has recently finished and the WDNR will be hosting a Completion Celebration to commemorate the occasion on Monday, November 2nd.

Details of the past dredging can be found in a recent Bayview Compass article.

Now that the cleanup work is complete, MMSD plans to re-engineer the KK river with a $49.9 million project designed to reduce flood risk, increase public safety, and beautify one of the nation’s most troubled rivers.   Over the next decade, MMSD will be working to acquire approximately 84 properties near the concretized Kinnickinnic River mainstem between Sixth and 16th Streets.

The mainstem project will result in removaol of  12,000 linear feet of crumbling concrete lining the KK River between Sixth and 27th streets and expand the channel from the current 60 feet to as much as 200 feet wide.

“The new channel will be bioengineered and will include a low flow stream, pools and riffles, and a connected vegetative floodway. The project will also replace five vehicle and four pedestrian bridges,” according to the Kinnickinnic River Watercourse Management Plan, updated in October.  To read the full article visit the Bayview Compass.

To help filter the water to the KK, Milwaukee Riverkeeper has been part of a collabortion to install a rain garden in Cleveland Park.  The garden will provide shallow depressions that mimic the natural absorption and pollutant removal abilities of a forest by allowing stormwater runoff to be collected and slowly absorbed into the soil. 

“Focusing on the KK River watershed has been our goal because the area is very urbanized-or built out. Over 90% of the watershed is hard surfaces, such as rooftops, roads, or parking lots, which means more polluted stormwater runoff because the water isn’t absorbed on site. This runoff directly contributes to the poor water quality in the KK River, and to flooding problems. Monitoring at a rain garden the team built at Cleveland Park has provided scientific data that rain gardens make a difference,” said Cheryl Nenn of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, whose staff conducted the monitoring.

“Runoff from the rain garden site was cleaner than an adjacent paved control site, which contributed more sediment, bacteria, and pollutants to the KK River during several rain events this summer.”

To read more about the results the Cleveland Park rain garden had on water quality, see the attached report.

To read the full article about the rain garden visit the Bayview Compass.