MMSD building $13 million research center in Oak Creek to keep improving drinking water

A new research facility may help improve how wastewater is treated in Milwaukee and beyond.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has announced its plans to build a state-of-the-art research facility to test new clean water technologies that will make wastewater treatment more efficient, helping to improve public health and drinking water supplies. The $13 million research facility will be built at the South Shore Reclamation Facility in Oak Creek. Construction is slated to begin in 2026.

“This facility marks the latest progression in Milwaukee’s long history of wastewater and water technology innovation,” said Kevin Shafer, the executive director of the sewerage district, in a release.

The main objective of the research facility will be to test new technologies, so they can be implemented at larger scales, said Bill Graffin, public information manager at the sewerage district.

The first project slated to begin once the facility is up-and-running is a two-year pilot project that will help reduce sewer overflows and backups during heavy rain events.

According to Graffin, the pilot project will help streamline the second step of the four-step wastewater treatment process.

Currently, there are big settling tanks where grease and oil float to the top and are skimmed off and disposed of. Solids, which sink to the bottom, go into a pipeline that ships them to the Oak Creek facility. The solids are put into anaerobic digestors, where they produce gas that helps create energy. That energy powers upwards of 75% of the total energy needs of the wastewater treatment facility, Graffin said.

The pilot project will replace the settling tanks and create a faster process called primary filtration. According to Graffin, this process removes more solids, so the water that comes out of this stage is cleaner. The process is more efficient and requires fewer chemicals, which will save money, he said.

It's a better process that is "going to help reduce the number of overflows, basement backups, because we'll be able to treat more water on a consistent basis," Graffin said.

The district serves 1.1 million people across 28 communities, which involves the city of Milwaukee and many surrounding suburbs. Like many cities in the Great Lakes, Milwaukee has a combined sewer system, so both stormwater and wastewater from homes and businesses flow through the same pipes before being treated by the sewerage district. When more water flows into the system than can be treated, the sewerage district can overflow untreated wastewater into Lake Michigan.

The two-year pilot study has received federal support via a $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and Congresswoman Gwen Moore helped secure another $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

If everything goes as planned, Milwaukee will be the first city in the U.S. to do implement the primary filtration process at a large scale, Graffin said.

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Caitlin Looby is a Report for America corps member who writes about the environment and the Great Lakes. Reach her at clooby@gannett.com or follow her on X @caitlooby .

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MMSD building $13 million research center in Oak Creek to keep improving drinking water