City, County, MMSD Form Flood Task Force

Flooding on S. 2nd St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

After the second major flood in fewer than eight months, top local leaders are forming a flood mitigation task force.

The City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) are setting up a task force to plan for future flooding in the short and long term. The task force was announced Friday by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley and MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer.

“This flood mitigation task force will build on the cooperative work that’s been underway for decades and add a renewed sense of urgency as a result of recent flooding events,” Mayor Johnson said in a statement. “The work of the panel will prioritize mitigation in locations facing the highest risk, including sites that have been flooded repeatedly in recent years.”

MMSD is the primary public institution focused on flood mitigation in the Milwaukee County region. It has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in stormwater retention and flood management projects. The district collects property taxes to fund sewerage and stormwater infrastructure in the region, but even that is not enough.

“The work of this task force can aid MMSD in both prioritizing the work and identifying funding for the projects we have in mind,” Executive Director Shafer said. “Mitigation efforts that the district has previously identified have price tags totaling about $900 million, and an investment of that scale requires significant public input and buy-in from numerous local governments.”

In 2022, the district secured a $42 million loan from the federal government to, among other things, construct a massive, 31-million-gallon storage basin called West Basin.

After the flooding in August 2025, more than an estimated $30 million in county-owned infrastructure was damaged. The Milwaukee County Parks system had significant damage from sinkholes, waterlogged golf courses, flooded properties and bike trails that washed out.

“The extreme weather events that have hit Milwaukee County pose a real threat to the infrastructure that supports our environment, economy and way of life,” Crowley said in a statement. “We must take action before the next major flood or storm further damages the roads, bridges, parks and essential infrastructure that residents rely on.”

The task force will build on existing regional partnerships, Crowley said. The county and MMSD have a long history of partnering on flood mitigation projects in the county parks system, where the sewerage district has removed concrete from river channels and installed stormwater retention facilities.

The task force is expected to take shape in the coming days and will produce a report by the end of the year.