2012 Status Report

Greater Milwaukee Watersheds

Area: Watershed: (in sq. miles)

Kinnickinnic River 24.7

Menomonee River 135.8

Milwaukee River 700.0

Oak Creek 28.2

Root River 197.6

Lake Michigan Direct Drainage Area 40.7

Total Square Miles: 1,127.0

Number of Counties: 9

Number of Local Municipalities:83

Total Perennial River Miles: 600+

Sweet Water Ahead Vision to reality

Learning Seeing the way Moving ahead

First A brief look back

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Milwaukee River Downstream of North Av

The Sweet Water Back Story – A Need and a Hope

A watershed approach We face urgent problems – e.g. dropping water

tables & on-going water quality issues Jurisdictional overlaps, policy gaps and lack of

data hamper solutions Need to think strategically and regionally

Build new tools to fill the gaps

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RWARNING: The next slide is rated R.

Conception: Spring 2007

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MMSD

DNR

NGOs

Scientists

SEWRPC

Business

Farmers

LocalGov’t

Gestation Building trust Two kinds of people:

“Let’s just do it!” “Let’s get it right . . .”

Sweet Water’s Goals

• Make measurable progress

• Focus on land use practices

• Leverage funding

• Recommend new policies

• Insist on cost-effective projects

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Measurable Goals

• Targets from SEWRPC’s Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update

• Convert 48 square miles of marginal cropland to prairie or wetlands • Establish or expand riparian buffers along 325 miles of stream bank• Reduce the existing pollutant loads to streams and lakes as follows:

• Phosphorus ↓ 15% • Total Suspended Solids (TSS) ↓ 40%• Fecal Coliform Bacteria ↓ 50%• Nitrogen ↓ 30%• Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand ↓ 15%

Birth: Spring 2008 Steering Council Committees Joyce Foundation grant

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Taking Our First Step, 2008-2012

Watershed Restoration Plans

Implementation Plans Water Quality Trading

White Paper Annual Conference Mini-Grant Program Rivers Report Watershed Watch And more . . .

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Sweet Water’s Outreach Efforts

Clustered Residential BMP ProjectKK River Watershed

Green Infrastructure Mini-Grants

Sweet Water Goals Results . . . So farMake measurable progress

Benchmarking:Menomonee, KK, and Root Water Restoration PlansRegional Public Survey on Knowledge and Actions

Focus on land use practices

On the ground projects with multiple partners:Mini-grants16th Street Community Health’s BMP on the KKPriorities identified through WAT implementation plans

Leverage funding • Joyce Foundation grant$3.4 million over six years

• PLUS $450,000 in 2011• PLUS grants our partners secured with Sweet Water match or focus

Recommend new policies

• Water Quality Trading White Paper, March 2010• Watershed-Based Permit in Menomonee• Broadcast public education campaign

• $200,000 to $250,000 with Root-Pike WIN for 2 years

Insist on cost-effective projects

In progress

Cool Stuff You May Have Missed

Greater Milwaukee Water Quality Connections

Cool Stuff You May Have Missed

Inside the Greater Milwaukee Watersheds

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50-page summary of the 2007 Regional Water Quality Plan

Sets stage for why Sweet Water focuses on stormwater

Cool Stuff You May Have Missed

Speakers’ Bureau with 42 specific topics

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Cool Stuff You May Have Missed

Menomonee River Mainstem Land Protection Plan

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Mission Success

Increased communication between partners and sectors

Increased collaboration between partners and sectors

Shared understanding of how we will tackle the problem

Looking Ahead:Our Teenage Years Strategic planning Learning how to bridge differences Learning how to survive and thrive

“Out there on our own . . .”

What Will Middle-Age Look Like? Hundreds of

organizations Government Non-profit For profit

Hundreds of thousands of people

Property owners Volunteers

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Communi-cations

Committee

Habitatindicators

Tracking emerging

issues

Key role in State’s new

water quality trading efforts

Watershed- based storm water

permitting effort

Menomonee River

KinnickinnicRiver

Milwaukee River

TotalMaximum

Daily Load

(TMDL)Projects

Research public

knowledge

Municipal Stormwater

MediaCampaign

Watershed Action Teams

ScienceCommittee

Policy Committee

Sweet Water

New bacteria markers

Oak Creek

How We Work

Watershed Action Teams to follow:

Root River

Guiding new

phosphorus rules

Chaordic Organization Dee Hock, founder of Visa Chaotic and ordered organizational structure “encourage as much competition and

initiative as possible while building mechanisms for cooperation” Can we use competition to find the most cost-

effective solutions?

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“The Trillion Dollar Vision of Dee Hock,” by M. Mitchell Waldrop, in FastCompany

Chaordic Organization & Hock

$135,000 grant from Joyce Foundation Be adaptable and responsive, while

preserving unity of purpose Find delicate balance to avoid turf fights

Cultivate equity, autonomy, and individual opportunity

Governing structure must distribute power and function to the lowest level

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Chaordic Organization

Governing structure as a framework for dialogue, deliberation, and coordination among equals Federated structure Members with voting representation

Sweet Water original Policies and Procedures

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For more info, visit

swwtwater.org

Thank you!