Milwaukee earns $1M grant to improve water quality in Lake Michigan

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- The City of Milwaukee was awarded on Wednesday, March 12th, a $1 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Milwaukee will use the EPA grant, in combination with $2.1 million in City funding, to install porous pavement that will filter stormwater and reduce the amount of untreated runoff discharged to the Kinnickinnic, Menomonee, and Milwaukee Rivers that flow into the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern and Lake Michigan.

Milwaukee is one of 16 cities to receive funding in the initial round of EPA’s new Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities grant program. These grants can be used to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of green infrastructure projects on public property. The projects include rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, porous pavement, greenways, constructed wetlands, stormwater tree trenches and other green infrastructure measures designed to improve water quality in the Great Lakes basin.

To find more information about the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative or Shoreline Cities Green Infrastructure Grants, visit www.glri.us.