Watershed Experience

Earth Tech provides rainy day solution

Southbranch Creek Flood Abatement Milwaukee County

By Jeremy Harrell

The rain in Milwaukee County falls not mainly on the plain but everywhere, and in the 1990s, the area was swamped by storms.

Heavy downpours in 1997 swelled the Southbranch Creek in northern Milwaukee County, sending water over the banks and causing $13 million in damages to homes and businesses in and around Brown Deer. The rains came again in 1998, with similarly disastrous results. Streets filled with water and clogged the sanitary sewers.

It was time to do something, and for speedy, reliable results, Brown Deer village leaders turned to engineering firm Earth Tech Inc., Milwaukee. Richard Klein, a project manager with the company, submitted a preliminary plan in March 1999 calling for a series of detention basin projects to stem the creek's chronic flooding.

For jurisdictional and financial reasons, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District came on as the project owner, and by June, shovels were in the ground.

"It was a huge, fast-track project," Klein said.

The firm had to juggle the perspectives of numerous different groups, Klein said. The company had to satisfy several governments, MMSD, local schools, recreation groups and, last but not least, environmental monitors at the state Department of Natural Resources.

As a result, Earth Tech's plan achieves maximum flood abatement, and the projects also serve a second, valuable function as recreation and green space.

Parade of projects

The first project — a dry detention basin built by C.W. Purpero Inc., Milwaukee — replaced a row of houses in Brown Deer that were damaged in the 1998 flood.

Designed and completed in less than seven months, the basin provides a year-round, multifunctional, park-like setting.

Project Name: Southbranch Creek Flood Abatement Location: Milwaukee County Submitting Company: Earth Tech Inc., Milwaukee General Contractor/Construction Manager: C.W. Purpero Inc., Milwaukee, and Edgerton Contractors Inc., Oak Creek Architect: No Architect Engineer: Earth Tech Inc., Milwaukee Owner: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Project Cost: $4.3 million Start Date: June 1999 Completion Date: October 2002

The second project — built by Edgerton Contractors Inc., Oak Creek — is another dry detention basin. This time, however, Earth Tech transformed an old baseball field into two new diamonds, with drainage tiles, reinforced turf and native plantings to mitigate the flooding, Klein said.

The ball fields accommodate every level of play, from slow-pitch softball to high school hardball, he said.

The third and most complex project — again built by C.W. Purpero — underwent heavier scrutiny from the DNR, Klein said. Earth Tech designed a wet detention pond that, to the average viewer, looks like a park with a small lake in the middle — complete with paths and bridges — and it's become an educational tool for students at a nearby school.

The third project also included another dry basin across the street from the wet detention pond, and it's outfitted with a soccer field that the Milwaukee Kickers soccer club took part in conceiving, Klein said.

The comprehensive nature of the solution makes it the first of its kind in southeast Wisconsin. More importantly, perhaps, the detention ponds have become pleasant recreation spots for residents, he said.

"The community was made aware that this is flood control," Klein said. "But we also wanted to make the features an amenity. We wanted to make people happy it was there when it wasn't raining."

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