Fixing the waterways is a community-wide issue

By Dave Fidlin

Correspondent

Efforts to remove heavy amounts of sediment – long considered a foe in local waterways – could pick up in the year ahead. Cost, however, will determine the full scope of work.

Several committee members within the Waterford Waterway Management District (WWMD) have been examining ways of ridding silt and other sedimentary particles from the beds of waterways.

In some areas of the lake and river running through Waterford, sediment has been as high as 11 feet; according to experts, the normal height is between 5 and 6 feet.

At WWMD’s recent annual meeting, members of the Eco-Restoration Committee discussed work that has been done to date – and where efforts are heading into the future. Commissioner John Bostrom oversees the group.

“We’re turning ourselves into a marsh,” Bostrom said, pointing to the importance of addressing the growth of sediment.

Dredging local waterways has been seen as a viable option to addressing the prevalence of sediment, and the WWMD is in the second phase of studying the proposal as the season winds down.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Fox River Commission in June provided WWMD with a $65,600 grant for testing that includes soil sample collection and compiling results and reports. The grant covers 90 percent of the cost, and WWMD is paying the remaining $6,560.

This season, testing was conducted at 56 locations throughout local waterways.

At the annual meeting, commissioners brought in a guest speaker: Lawrence Witzling, a principal at engineering firm Graef and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Witzling spoke about the policy decisions WWMD commissioners will be faced with as testing results reveal some of the options available.

Witzling is a resident of Shorewood on suburban Milwaukee’s north shore. The community was hit hard in July 2010 when two torrential downpours saturated the community, overtaxed existing sewage systems and caused significant flooding and basement back-ups.

“I know what it is like to be a property owner and be looking at millions of dollars,” Witzling said of remediation efforts being explored in his community.

“It really is a heartfelt, complex problem. In terms of equity, you want to be somewhere in the middle, but you never really get it that way.”

Witzling discussed some of WWMD’s possible options in addressing funding. Short- and long-term borrowing is one such proposal on the table.

“Whatever problem you have, from what I understand, it’s only going to get bigger,” Witzling said. “Fixing the problem goes beyond (lakefront) property owners. You have to engage the entire community.”