Milwaukee
- Over two thousand volunteers turned out on Saturday morning to
clean the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic Rivers during
Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers’ 12th Annual Spring River Cleanup.
The cleanup took place at 33 cleanup locations throughout the
Milwaukee area, stretching from Milwaukee’s South Side to West Bend.
Volunteers worked from 9 am until noon, pulling tires, shopping
carts, bottles, cans and other trash out of the rivers and adjacent
parkways.
An estimated 500 volunteers arrived to clean the Kinnickinnic River,
which was designated last week as one of the ten most polluted
rivers in the country. Because of the steep embankments along
Kinnickinnic River, a crane was used to haul dumpsters of trash out
of the riverbed.
Mayor Tom Barrett arrived at Jackson Park at the start of the
cleanup to visit with volunteers there. He planned to travel to
other cleanup locations in the city.
Alderman Michael Murphy was present at the Hank Aaron State Trail
location, where volunteers worked to clean the river and plant
native trees and plants along the trail.
Many community groups and organizations partnered with Friends of
Milwaukee’s Rivers to organize the cleanup. Partners included the
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, Sierra Club, Keep Greater
Milwaukee Beautiful, and others.
Sponsors of the cleanup included United Water, Schlitz Park, The
Edge Condos, Gilbane Building Company, REI and others.
Milwaukee
Riverkeeper Cheryl Nenn spoke on WUWM's Lake Effect show this
morning on the subject of the Kinnickinnic River and its Endangered
River status.
Kinnickinnic
Among America’s Most Endangered Rivers
The Kinnickinnic River on Milwaukee's
South Side has been named one of America's ten most endangered
rivers by American Rivers.
“In a city that is home to the Brewers,
lawmakers at every level of government have allowed the Kinnickinnic
River to become a toxic brew of chemicals and pollution,” says
American Rivers’ president Rebecca Wodder. “It’s sad to see a river
that could be a jewel in the heart of a thriving American metropolis
being forced to die a slow, painful death.”
Watch a video of one of America's most endangered rivers,
The
Kinnickinnic River.
Video
produced by Melissa Czarnik. Music by Eric Meyer.
Copyright
Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers 2007
April 12, 2007
Milwaukee River Work Group presents vision paper
Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, along with River
Revitalization Foundation and Urban Ecology Center, have formed the
Milwaukee River Workgroup aimed at creating a central park along the
Milwaukee River. The park would run from the North Avenue
footbridge north to Silver Spring Drive. The park would
preserve the wild aspect of the Milwaukee River corridor and improve
wildlife habitat and water quality. The park would also
improve public access to this urban natural resource.
The work group has put out a vision paper about the
work. You can pick up a copy of the paper at our office, or
read it online.
MMSD dumped an estimated 399 million
gallons of sewage into the rivers and lake this week after
continuous rainfall overwhelmed the deep tunnel system. The
dumping began Tuesday morning, and continued into Thursday.
TMJ4 helicopters captured footage of a
plume of pollutants entering Lake Michigan on Tuesday.
