Milwaukee Water Commons

06/04/2026

April brought record-setting rain to Milwaukee and now it’s June, the state’s wettest month. With our climate becoming more and more volatile, flooding isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

For decades, MMSD and community partners have invested in flood management, green infrastructure, and climate resilience. But climate change is accelerating faster than our policies and investments.

Medical student and Milwaukee resident Maya Livni writes that the failure to keep up with the flooding crisis is “structural and political, a city doing the right work at the wrong speed, inside a state legislature that has refused to treat the underlying cause, climate change, as a legislative emergency.”

See her recommendations for what each of us can do to be better prepared for flooding and the two demands of our federal elected officials we should consider.

https://buff.ly/i7TcluE

Wisconsin needs flood infrastructure funded at the pace the climate now demands and updated flood maps that reflect the storms actually arriving.

06/04/2026

💧 This Juneteenth, we're taking the river to the streets but we need your help to make it first.

Join us on Saturday, June 6, to help create a 30-foot-long "walking river" for Milwaukee's Juneteenth parade – a community art project inspired by water as a pathway to freedom, connection, and liberation.

We'll use our creativity and all kinds of materials from ribbon to pallet wrappers to craft sections of the river.

🎨 No art experience needed.
🌊 All ages welcome.
✊ Then march with us in the parade!

Let's create something beautiful together.

#414

https://buff.ly/WNIScYG

06/03/2026

Meet great people. Learn something new. Make a difference for our water.

Water School brings together leaders from across Milwaukee to explore our rivers, Lake Michigan and water systems while learning about environmental justice and local solutions. Sessions include shared experiences, creativity and plenty of time outside.

‼️ NEW THIS SUMMER: individuals can join the four-session program and collaborate with others on a neighborhood-based project. ‼️

One catch: you have to act fast because registration ends June 14.

Sessions are held June 20, July 18, August 8 (fun field trip to Mauthe Lake!) and September 19.

Contact Rhonda Nordstrom, community education manager, at [email protected] for more info or to register.

06/01/2026

🌈 Environmental justice and LGBTQ+ liberation are deeply connected.

Everyone deserves safe homes, clean water, healthy neighborhoods, and beaches where they can live fully and freely.

This Pride Month, we honor Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ communities and continue working toward a city where care, dignity, and belonging flow to everyone.

Happy Pride! 🌈

05/28/2026

📣 ‼️ DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS EXTENDED

Calling all parents, friends and relatives of young poets and artists!

Spread the word to share art and poetry inspired by water for a public showcase at our annual We Are Water event on August 16 at McKinley Beach.

All K-12 students are encouraged to put their creativity on display.

New deadline for submissions: July 1.

05/22/2026

🏖️🌞 If Milwaukee’s beautiful beaches are in your holiday weekend plans, stay safe!

Download Swim Guide, a free app updated every day with local information about high water levels, rip currents, and bacteria levels. It’s free and easy to use. Turn on your location to see a map of beaches closest to you – in Milwaukee or wherever your travels take you. Beaches in green are safe and red beaches are unsafe.

Swim Guide also provides directions, where to park, amenities available and everything else you need to enjoy a day on the beach.

🛟 Stay safe and swim smart. Check Swim Guide before you go and have a great summer!

Take Swim Guide with you - wherever you go! The Swim Guide app is free. Experience the freedom of beach-hunting from your Apple or Android smartphone.

05/21/2026

05/21/2026

Communities experiencing generations of disinvestment and environmental burdens should not be asked to simply trust the process. They should shape it.

As conversations continue around a proposed data center at Midtown, residents deserve transparency, meaningful engagement, and access to clear information before decisions are made. Environmental justice is not only about outcomes. It’s also about process. Who gets informed? Who gets heard? Who has power in the room?

Water, energy, land use, and public resources are shared concerns and the people most affected must be part of the decisions that define Milwaukee’s future.

Community members who live near Midtown Center continue to ask questions about a development proposal that would include up to 19,000 square feet of space for a data processing facility.

05/20/2026

Clean water is public health infrastructure. It’s environmental justice infrastructure. And it requires sustained public investment.

Proposed cuts to federal clean water funding would hit Wisconsin communities hard, especially communities that rely on State Revolving Funds to afford critical water infrastructure projects.

At the same time, demand for clean water funding in Wisconsin has never been higher, with more than $1 billion in requests last year alone. These investments support lead service line replacement, wastewater upgrades, flood resilience, and safer drinking water across our state.

We’re encouraged to see bipartisan support for programs like State Revolving Funds and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which continue to make real progress possible in Milwaukee and across the Great Lakes region.

We urge all Wisconsin congressional representatives to push back on proposed cuts. We’ll keep an eye on the appropriations process and keep you informed.

Wisconsin and other states again face steep funding cuts for water and wastewater projects under the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed budget, but it’s drawing bipartisan opposition in Congress.