Fish Passage Denial Hurts Community

To date, the federally funded "Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program" has created over 40,000 labor hours in Ozaukee County, invested over $2 million in improvements to county infrastructure and eliminated 120 aquatic barriers (invasive weeds, log/debris jams and reconstruction of improperly placed culverts) to upstream movement of fish.

But it has also brought communities together as it partnered with local residents, nonprofit organizations and local government.

Now, after approval from the Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two years working closely with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the comprehensive watershed habitat connection is being threatened.

The WDNR has given a tentative denial for the Bridge Street fishway in Grafton. If denied, the decision will eliminate the economic and job-creation benefits of a $1.5 million construction project in downtown Grafton, including resultant recreation and tourism, and will hinder other program goals — providing hands-on training skills for underprivileged youth, providing access to 20,000 acres of wetland and building community stewardship.

The reasoning for the denial: concerns regarding invasive species and viral hemorrhagic septicemia. This would be very logical and practical had the WDNR not spent the last two years actively working with Fish Passage Program staff on designing stoplog gates to completely shut down the fishway should either be identified in the area.  

Regarding concerns of the passage facilitating the spread of the invasive round goby, Fish Passage Program press release clarified, "We’ve also developed a tiered monitoring approach and decision tree to guide management decisions as to when the fishway should be shut down. We’ve also shown that the normal velocities of the river in several sections, as well as within the fishway itself, are greater than round goby’s swimming ability based off scientific literature review."

So why is Bridge Street so crucial for the Fish Passage Program?

A recent Program press release explained, "Program goals cannot be completed without the construction of the Bridge Street fishway in the Village of Grafton. A majority of our Program’s work was already completed upstream, so permit denial really impacts the positive work already completed including costs of $300,000 spent on engineering, design and staffing — $1.5 million total construction cost and $1.6 total cost including engineering, design and staffing invested to date."