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Bradford Beach is riding a serious comeback wave. |
 | By Jeff Sherman   OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer Photography by Jeff Sherman E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Jeff Sherman |
| Published June 23, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. |
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OnMilwaukee.com first told you about the major rebirth at Bradford Beach on May 15. New food, lifeguards, activities, security and more have all been added.
It's paid off with big crowds and a new sense of community at the once almost dead beach.
Miller Brewing Company announced Tuesday a five-year, $500,000 commitment to continued Bradford Beach revitalization plans that include a Blue Wave campaign that will seek environmental certification.
The Bradford Beach Revitalization and Blue Wave Campaign is a public-private partnership between the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), the Milwaukee County Parks Department, the Greater Milwaukee Committee's Quality of Life Committee and private sector companies to attain Blue Wave status for Bradford Beach.
Blue Wave certification is granted by the independent, non-profit Clean Beaches Council and is America's first environmental certification for beaches.
Miller's half-a million dollar investment will be directed toward environmental and coastal management improvement, including algae removal, seagull control, water quality monitoring and research, and a public awareness campaign, as well as handicap accessibility equipment and the EPA Blue Wave application fee. $25,000 a year will go to the Great Lakes WATER Institute to fund water quality testing and a beach Web cam for recording purposes.
"We are thrilled to that Miller Brewing Company is a part of the revitalization efforts," said Sue Black, Director of Milwaukee County Parks. "This public-private partnership is an incredible collaborative effort between several Milwaukee organizations. It's a great example of groups working together to accomplish a goal that will really improve the quality of life for Milwaukee residents."
2400 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53211
(414) 962-8809
www.bradfordbeachjam.com
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8 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review. |
Recent Talkbacks ...
Posted by bluey on June 25, 2008 at 12:08 a.m. (report)
ALBA, with all due respect, it may interest you to know that prior to the Deep Tunnel going online in 1994, sewer overflows in the Milwaukee area were far worse--yes, worse--than they are today. Prior to the tunnel, there were between about 60-100 combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and 10-50 sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) each year. Since the tunnel, those numbers are more like 0-5 and 0-10, respectively. Volumes of overflows pre-tunnel used to average 8 to 9 billion gallons every year. Since the tunnel, the highest has been about 4 billion per year, but most years it's in the millions. Check out the graphs for yourself at the links below. The difference is striking. http://www.mmsd.com/images/wastewatertreatment/cso.gif http://www.mmsd.com/images/wastewatertreatment/sso.gif http://www.mmsd.com/images/wastewatertreatment/cso_sso_volumes_sm.jpg Of course we'd all like to have ZERO overflows, all the time, and that's what MMSD must strive for. However, the Deep Tunnel has become a scapegoat--and it's diverting attention from the real issues. Our community needs to realize that the way we develop our land plays a tremendous role in these overflows. The more pavement we have, and the less wetland and just plain unpaved land we have to soak up water, the more we have huge quantities of water going directly to our sewer system--and overwhelming it. At that point, the choice becomes one between basement backups or sewer overflows. We also need to address water infiltration in old, leaky sewer pipes--another problem that contributes to overflows. MMSD is not perfect, but they are active in many efforts to improve our waters, and their involvement in the clean beach campaign is par for the course. Would you prefer that they DON'T get involved in such projects, given the recent sewer overflows? Personally, I say kudos to them for being out there. And kudos to all involved in the effort to revive Bradford. It looks better already!
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Posted by MUJ5 on June 24, 2008 at 6:12 p.m. (report)
I also love the new upbeat feel of the beach. The rain gardens and bluff stabilization projects are a great start for keeping the beach clean. But people have to be conscience as well to keep garbage off the beach. Also, the dumping of sewage in a lake is not good, but without the deep tunnel, that much more sewage would be in the lake. The deep tunnel is not the problem, the combined sewer creates the mixing problem. However, to replace the entire sewer system would be more expensive than I think you would like to spend.
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Posted by alba on June 23, 2008 at 9:53 p.m. (report)
It's funny that MMSD is part of the "clean beaches" campaign considering that they dumped 2,900,000,000 gallons of sewage between June 7th and 15th this year. That number looks funny because it's 2.9 BILLION gallons! Yes, we had a lot of rain, but if we had a normal sewage system clean rainwater would have simply run into our lakes and rivers. But because of the deep tunnel, human waste was dumped in the water by Bradford Beach.
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Posted by danielnathan on June 23, 2008 at 3:47 p.m. (report)
Hmmm sounds fantastic. I've been saying for years, we could have a phenomenal scene at the lakefront, but we just let it stink and rot. I wonder if any sewage was dumped during the torrential downfall we just had.
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Posted by mkelover on June 23, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. (report)
So basically we can deduce that Bradford Beach owes its revitalization to volleyball...I like that.
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