Neighborhood and Community Outreach  

Looking for a truly unique group tour? Join us to tour the Jones Island water reclamation facilitiy, water quality lab, or the research vessel, the Pelagos. Learn how we clean wastewater, protect public health or how we make Milorganite, a fertilizer trusted by lawn and garden experts since 1926. Click here to find more detailed tour information.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District can provide experts who will speak to your group on a wide variety of topics dealing with water quality. Fill out this form to request a speaker.

Rain Barrel Workshops: Learn how to install and care for a rain barrel in a rain barrel workshop. Participants will learn about water conservation and the many benefits of using rain barrels. Rain barrels capture rainwater from your roof that you can use later when it's dry for thirsty gardens. They also help prevent rain from becoming polluted stormwater runoff, the biggest remaining threat to clean rivers and our Great Lakes.

Rain Garden Workshop: Each plant sale season (January -March) we offer a rain garden workshop to help you select rain garden plants and build your rain garden.

Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is happy to have a presence at your special neighborhood event and to help your residents learn about how they can help protect our rivers, streams, and Lake Michigan. Please fill out this form to let us know more about your event and topic.

Fresh Coast Guardians are everyday people who love Lake Michigan and want to protect it. Work together with your community to help protect Lake Michigan and to become stewards of their environment. You can help us prevent polluted storm runoff from reaching our waterways by managing water better when it rains or snows.

Adopt-a-River: Milwaukee Riverkeeper’s program, sponsored by MMSD, allows individuals or groups to adopt a section of the river with the commitment of cleaning that section two times per year for the next two years.

Water Drop Alerts: The Watershed Team of Common Ground is taking an innovative approach to reducing water pollution from sewer overflows by issuing Water Drop Alerts when large storms threaten the area. By using less water, you're helping reduce the amount of sewage that might end up in the environment if there is an overflow.

Rain Check: Protecting your home and family from heavy rain starts with a home audit, inside and out. Rain Check can help you identify and correct potential problems that could lead to water damage and more. By managing water where it falls, we all can help reduce the risk of basement backups and water pollution.

Household Hazardous Waste: With three year-round drop off locations and multiple popups locations disposing of your hazardous waste is easier than ever before. By dropping off your old and unused household hazardous waste and help keep our land, and our water, a little cleaner.

Medicine Collection: Help to combat the opioid crisis and keep our waterways health by safely disposing of unused prescription medications at a drug take back site.

Downspout Disconnect: During heavy rain, every downspout on your home can send 12 gallons of water a minute to the sewer system, which increases the risk of basement backups and sewer overflows. Find out if you can disconnect your downspout and help keep excess water out of sanitary sewers.

Adopt-a-Storm Drain: Through the Respect Our Waters campaign of the Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust anyone can adopt their local storm drain. By adopting a drain, you agree to prevent pollution from reaching storm drains by keeping the area around drains free from debris and by following a few simple tips.

SWWT Mini-grants: Sweet Water’s signature Water Quality Mini-Grant Program distributes grants of $1,000 - $5,000 to non-profit community and civic groups for projects or activities that use green infrastructure practices or other approaches to improve water quality, enhance environmental conservation, restore aquatic habitat, or educate people about these issues. Applications are usually due in the fall.