Water Sector News
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Milwaukee Wins $275 Million Grant To Fund Massive Waterway Cleanup
A massive environmental cleanup project of Milwaukee’s waterways reached a pivotal milestone Thursday. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined local partners to announce a $275 million federal grant that will back the $450 million effort.
“This is the largest cleanup project ever under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in making the announcement at Discovery World. “By cleaning up those treasured waters, we will significantly improve the health of the Milwaukee area, create good paying jobs and contribute to the revitalization of communities right here in Wisconsin.”
The effort, which will proceed in phases through 2029, will clean up more than a century of environmental contamination. The plan calls for cleaning Milwaukee’s waterways sufficient enough to see the federal “area of concern” designation dropped, with the result that fish would be safer to eat and water safer to swim in. The designation was first applied to Milwaukee’s harbor and connecting rivers in 1987.