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Legacy Act Project Sets Stage for 

Revitalized River Neighborhood 

About the Great Lakes 

AOCs

Although discharges of toxic 

substances into the Great Lakes 

have been reduced over the last 20 

years, high concentrations of 

pollution remain in the bottom of 

some rivers and harbors, posing 

health risks to people and wildlife. 

The tributaries and harbors 

identified as having pollution 

problems are known as “Areas of 

Concern,” or AOCs. There are 40 

AOCs on the Great Lakes – 25 on 

the U.S. side, 10 in Canada and five 

shared between the two countries. 

The Kinnickinnic River is part of the 

Milwaukee Estuary Area of 

Concern.

For more information 

Kinnickinnic River Project: 

Ajit Vaidya 

EPA Region 5 

312-353-5713 

vaidya.ajit@epa.gov 

Great Lakes Legacy Act: 

Marc Tuchman 

EPA Region 5

312-353-1369 

tuchman.marc@epa.gov 

WDNR:

Xiaochun Zhang 

608-264-8888 

xiaochun.zhang@wisconsin.gov 

EPA and WDNR Web sites 

www.epa.gov/glla

www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/index.html 

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/wm/sms/

kkriver/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program 

Office and state partner Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are 

celebrating the end of a Great Lakes Legacy Act project that dredged a 

section of Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River—an important step in a 

revitalized river community. The Kinnickinnic River project removed 

around 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. Dredging began June 1 and as of the end of October all major 

field operations were completed. 

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. 

Success of an urban river partnership 

The cleanup of this urban river is the result of many years of planning and 

collaboration between U.S. EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, WDNR, 

the city and Port of Milwaukee, U.S. Coast Guard, and local stakeholders 

including Business Improvement District No. 35. The local Business 

Improvement District undertook shoreline improvements in preparation 

Kinnickinnic River Legacy Act Site/Milwaukee AOC 

Milwaukee Wisconsin November 2009 

The Great Lakes Legacy Act cleanup of a section of the Kinnickinnic River in South 

Milwaukee is aiding an ongoing revitalization of businesses and riverfront areas in 

the neighborhood 
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for the cleanup. The endeavor directly employed as 

many as 60 workers, providing economic stimulus to 

the region. 

Project outcome

The undertaking removed sediment containing about 

1,200 pounds of PCBs and 13,000 pounds of PAHs. 

The sediment was transported by barge and disposed of 

in the special cell built at the Milwaukee Area Confined 

Disposal Facility at Jones Island that is owned by the 

Port of Milwaukee and operated by the Corps of 

Engineers.

Remediation to revitalization 

In addition to the positive environmental effects to the 

Milwaukee Estuary AOC, a side benefit of the removal 

of the contaminated sediment is a safer, deeper and 

more navigable river. Several areas where accumulated 

sediment or sunken obstacles had blocked passage were 

removed. The improved navigation conditions are 

expected to attract more boaters and visitors to the 

project area. Property owners are planning to expand 

their businesses with additional boat slips, moorings, 

fisherman wharves, riverwalks, and a boat launch ramp. 

A former industrial brownfields site next to the river is 

also being redeveloped for commercial use. The 

construction of a boaters lounge is currently under way 

in a newly refurbished office building and a restaurant 

recently opened on another riverfront property in the 

project area. 

Legacy Act successes 

The Great Lakes Legacy Act was passed by Congress 

in 2002 as a tool to accelerate the pace of sediment 

cleanup within the Great Lakes Areas of Concern. One 

of the goals of the GLLA is to help restore “beneficial 

uses” to polluted sections in the Great Lakes AOCs. 

Beneficial use impairments include restrictions on 

dredging, loss of fish and wildlife habitat and limiting 

activities such as fishing and boating. The Legacy Act 

was reauthorized in 2008 and includes new provisions 

that allow for habitat restoration in conjunction with a 

sediment remediation project and site survey at 100 

percent federal expense.

Since 2004 six sediment cleanup projects have been 

completed under the Great Lakes Legacy Act. These 

projects have cleaned up more than 960,000 cubic yards 

of contaminated sediment at a cost of almost $119 

million. Some $68 million in Legacy Act funds have 

leveraged $51 million in non-federal dollars from state, 

local and private partners. This funding translated into 

the removal of nearly 1.6 million pounds of 

contaminants from Great Lakes waterways, reducing 

risks to human health and wildlife. The Kinnickinnic 

River is the second Legacy Act project in Wisconsin. In 

2005 sediment removal was completed in Newton 

Creek and Hog Island Inlet in Superior. 

Before and after photographs: As part of the Kinnickinnic River cleanup the project removed debris, river-choking 

mud flats and an abandoned boat.