The Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department works closely with the Milwaukee River Estuary Area of Concern (AOC) program and Wisconsin DNR to support and implement projects to address Beneficial Use Indicator (BUI) targets for the Milwaukee AOC. The AOC extends to the Bridge Street Dam on the Milwaukee River and on Cedar Creek in Ozaukee County (a map can be viewed here). Department staff have participated on AOC-related committees including the Fish and Wildlife Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC). Several federal, state, and local non profit grants have supported Department work to directly address several BUI’s, including Loss of Fish and Wildlife Habitat and Degradation of Fish and Wildlife Populations”.  Related projects have included water quality and fisheries monitoring, sediment contamination sampling, aquatic organism passage improvements, aquatic habitat assessments, and large scale, holistic habitat restoration projects that are hydrologically connected to the AOC, including the Ulao Creek Habitat Restoration project and the Little Menomonee River Corridor Ecosystem Restoration project.

Read more about this Area of Concern from the WDNR here and the USEPA here.

Visit our Qualitative Fish Habitat Rating Assessments page to read more about the work that the Department does for the Milwaukee River Estuary AOC.

Cedar Creek Cleanup

Through the USEPA Superfund program, a clean-up project is underway on Cedar Creek within the Milwaukee River Estuary Area of Concern. This creek has historically been heavily contaminated by multiple manufacturing companies. More can be read about this project here.