Milwaukee ordered to provide 'green infrastructure' for storm water

More rooftops in the Milwaukee area will be enlisted to grow grasses, flowers and other plants now that the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has been given the nation's first wastewater discharge permit mandating "green infrastructure" to collect and absorb storm water. Green roofs offer a growing opportunity for qualified landscape contractors. Shown here is a greenroof using Skyland product.

The state Department of Natural Resources issued MMSD a new 5-year pollution discharge permit requiring the district to establish 1 million gallons of so-called green storm-water storage capacity each year, said Ted Bosch, a DNR wastewater engineer in Milwaukee.

The district must use plants and soil, and rain barrels, to comply with the storage requirement. Apart from green roofs, the tools available include planting rain gardens at the ends of downspouts, installing porous pavement in parking lots, creating landscaped swales, and protecting wetlands and floodplains. https://v3.mmsd.com.