MMSD receives grant for Estabrook dam removal

The Fund for Lake Michigan awarded a $250,000 grant to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to help pay costs of removing the dam on the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park in Milwaukee, officials said Thursday.

MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer said he expects most, if not all, of the estimated $1.7 million cost of demolishing the deteriorated,1930s-era dam will be financed with grants.

"The Fund's grant is a really good start for us," Shafer said. "There's enough support for removing the dam that we expect other private grants as well as federal and state grants to pay the majority or all of the costs."

Repairing the dam and its upstream ice barriers, along with providing a fish passage, would cost the county an estimated $4.1 million.

Demolishing the dam would save public funds while improving water quality and reducing flood risks to 53 upstream properties in the river's floodplain, Shafer said.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regain miles of free-flowing river," Fund for Lake Michigan Executive Director Vicki Elkin said. "Dam removal aligns perfectly with our mission to improve water quality in both Lake Michigan and its tributaries."

Northern pike, sturgeon, walleye and other native Great Lakes fish will gain access to 25 miles of the main river upstream of Estabrook Park, as well as 29 miles of tributary streams and around 2,400 acres of wetland for spawning habitat, according to MMSD's grant application.

The district is negotiating an option with Milwaukee County to purchase 45.7 acres adjacent to the dam on the west end of Estabrook Park. Representatives of the county and district likely will sign the option next week and request that the state Department of Natural Resources approve a change in dam ownership.

If approved, a closing date for the land sale will be set in January, Shafer said. An MMSD retiree already has offered to give him the $1 it will cost the district to buy the land, Shafer said.

MMSD would begin demolition by October 2017 and the work would be completed in 2018.

The proposed temporary transfer of the property to the district is the next step in a plan to demolish the dam and break a stalemate in county government over whether to repair or remove the structure. In October, County Executive Chris Abele and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett joined Shafer in announcing the plan.

Transfer is possible under a 2015 change in state law that allows the Milwaukee County executive to sell county-owned non-park land without County Board consent.

On Nov. 1, the Milwaukee Common Council approved the rezoning.

At the time of the transfer, most of the rezoned land would immediately be returned to the county for continued use as parkland.

The Fund for Lake Michigan was established in 2008 to resolve legal disputes over the environmental impacts of constructing the Oak Creek power plant and Elm Road generating station. ​Under an agreement, the fund will receive a total of $4 million a year in payments from We Energies, Madison Gas and Electric Co. and Wisconsin Public Power Inc. through 2035. Other parties to the agreement include Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club.