In 2009, a Great Lakes Legacy Act project dredged a section of Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River. The Kinnickinnic River project removed about 167,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with PCBs and PAHs (polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) between Becher Street and Kinnickinnic Avenue on the south side of Milwaukee.

The Kinnickinnic River cleanup is the result of many years of collaboration between EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the city and Port of Milwaukee and local stakeholders including Business Improvement District #35.

Federal government and state share costs

Using Great Lakes Legacy Act funds - money set aside by Congress to clean up polluted sediment (mud) along U.S. shores of the Great Lakes -- EPA funded 65 percent or $14.3 million of the $22 million cost of the project. The required nonfederal share of 35 percent or $7.7 million came from a state bond fund under the Governor’s Growing Milwaukee Initiative for sediment cleanup. The special fund was approved by the State Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle in 2007.

• Legacy Act Project Sets Stage for Revitalized River Neighborhood (PDF)(2 pp, 139 K, November 2009)
  Kinnickinnic River Legacy Act Site/Milwaukee AOC
• Kinnickinnic River Legacy Act Dredging Project Begins (PDF)(2 pp, 119 K, June 2009)
• Kinnickinnic River Great Lakes Legacy Act Project Gets Under Way (PDF)(2 pp, 119 K, August 2008)