‘G’ is for Green Tech Station

It is a space supporting “green jobs.” Wilniesha Smith of Reflo guided Dontae Luttrell and other interns to help maintain Green Tech Station and other community-supported green infrastructure projects in the 30th Street Corridor. Chris Pack of Cream City Conservation Corps leads workforce crews to manage invasive species at Green Tech Station’s constructed wetland and native prairie.

It is a place of and for learning. The U.S. Geological Survey is using the twin bioswales as a test site to study microplastics in stormwater, and Marquette University students Joe Branca and Camille Nitsche are using specially constructed mesocosms to measure how different soil mixtures manage excess nutrients in stormwater. Lauren Lepold-Schiro of Hawthorne School is one of many teachers excited to bring her students to Green Tech Station on field trips. There, teachers and students alike can learn firsthand what the movement of water through the site can teach about taking care of new green infrastructure redevelopments at schoolyards throughout Milwaukee.

It is a place shaped by urban water management. Like a silent guardian, there’s the Deep Tunnel. Built and serviced by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and over 200 feet below ground, this massive tunnel’s job is to hold on to water during the heavy rains in order to reduce the risk of basement backups and sewer overflows that threaten to overwhelm the sewer system. An access shaft and vent for the Deep Tunnel at Green Tech Station reminds visitors of the important network of publicly owned and maintained “gray infrastructure”—including sewer pipes and culverts—that the 21st-century wave of community-supported “green infrastructure”—bioswales, porous pavers, green roofs, other plantings—is being deployed to complement.