Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers v. Heartland Development Group/ACT Planning and Development

Background: Vegetation along a river’s edge provides essential protection for the waterway. Trees, shrubs and undergrowth stabilize the shoreline and prevent soil erosion from entering the river and causing serious problems, such as increasing the river’s temperature, decreasing the amount of oxygen in the water, reducing the depth of the river due to sediment, and causing a murky, dirty appearance. Besides all the benefits shoreline vegetation provides for water, it also provides habitat for birds and animals.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands the importance of shoreline vegetation. Recently, Heartland Development Group, a Milwaukee-based real estate development company, hired ACT Planning and Development to prepare their property adjacent to the Milwaukee River for construction. They clear-cut several acres of shoreline vegetation along the river, at a site in the Glendale Business Park, close to Estabrook Park Falls, in Glendale, Wisconsin. Not only does this increase problems in the already stressed Milwaukee River, but this action ravaged a site that had often been used by area anglers and paddlers for access to the river.

The devastating clear-cut of these acres of vegetation is a violation of the Clean Water Act because the companies acted without the proper clean water permits from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). For construction projects affecting more than one acre, the DNR requires a construction site storm water permit that requires the developer to establish the means to manage, as well as limit, storm water runoff from the site. This permit also includes specific language that requires the developer to have and comply with an Erosion Control Plan.

Status: On November 8, 2007, Midwest Environmental Advocates sent a Notice of Intent to sue under the Clean Water Act to Heartland Development Group and ACT Planning and Development, on behalf of Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers. Despite reseeding efforts, the threat of erosion persists, as it is unlikely the reseeding will stabilize the land before runoff occurs.