China taps MMSD and The Water Council's expertise for help in creating 'sponge cities'

The central government in China is soliciting the water expertise of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and several area businesses to help transform 30 of China's largest urban centers into "sponge cities" by 2020.

China will invest $16 billion or more over the next few years to enable those cities to soak up rainwater where it falls rather than letting it flow into rivers, a critical step in preventing major floods.

The 30 mega-cities are planning to store much of the water to meet another goal of re-using at least 70% of all rainwater. The water could be captured and stored for future use or allowed to seep into the ground to replenish groundwater aquifers. 

So China could become a major buyer of water technology from Wisconsin, everything from engineering expertise to valves, filters, pumps and other products, said Katy Sinnott, vice president for international business development for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

"We have met with Chinese companies who will be building the 'sponge cities' infrastructure and who will need to buy our technologies," Sinnott said in referring to a March trip to Beijing.

An increasing number of Chinese cities in recent years have been damaged by major floods. Part of the blame for those losses rests on the unbroken expanse of concrete and other impermeable surfaces that cover the land in urban centers, according to central government officials.

WEDC and The Water Council are leading a Wisconsin delegation to China this month intended to promote the ability of MMSD and more than 200 state-based companies in the water technology industry to lend a hand to China and its "sponge cities."

MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer will attend three water conferences in China later this month to show them how rainwater can be captured to reduce runoff to sewers and waterways.

The district has been working with property owners for several years to install rain-absorbing projects — from plants on rooftops to downspout gardens and grass-lined swales — on the landscape. The green infrastructure reduces runoff to sewers and local waterways.

MMSD's Greenseams program has purchased wetlands and low-lying forests in local watersheds to preserve their role in minimizing flooding. The district also has excavated large basins at the Milwaukee County Grounds to store flood water from Underwood Creek before the flow reaches the Menomonee River.

Shafer will be joined by representatives of Rockwell Automation; Rexnord; A.O. Smith; InSinkErator; GRAEF, an engineering firm; and PaveDrain, a maker of permeable paving surfaces. The conferences are scheduled Nov. 27 in Nanjing, Nov. 29 in Beijing and Dec. 1 in Haikou, Shafer said.

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Officials from the Beijing Water Authority already have committed to be in Milwaukee one week after Shafer's visit to get a look at the green infrastructure projects and sign a "sister utilities" agreement with MMSD. The signing will take place Dec. 7 at the Jones Island sewage treatment plant on the Milwaukee lakefront.

"We're becoming an international destination for information" on wastewater treatment and green infrastructure, Shafer said.

The Beijing group also wants to learn more about the district's deep tunnel wastewater storage system, Shafer said. They might be given a glimpse of the cavern more than 300 feet beneath Jones Island that houses three massive pumps used to empty the tunnel.

"Across the world, they're paying attention to the strengths" of the water technology industry based in Milwaukee, said Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council, a Milwaukee-based organization.

Related:Sponge City: Solutions for China’s Thirsty and Flooded Cities

The China meetings come on the heels of a state-sponsored trade mission to Israel from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 that concluded with The Water Council signing two water technology partnership agreements. Amhaus and Shafer participated in the trade mission with Gov. Scott Walker.

One agreement with the Israeli National Technological Innovation Authority would allow MMSD to test innovative wastewater treatment processes developed in Israel to determine if they work in the climate of the Midwest.

MMSD and Veolia Water Milwaukee, the private operator of the district's two sewage treatment plants, are considering a test of one method to further reduce ammonia levels in treated wastewater.

Another Israeli technology of interest to the district offers real-time monitoring — with continuous readings of pollutant levels — of wastewater discharged from industries, he said.

The second agreement signed in Israel calls for greater collaboration on water research between The Water Council and the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.