Community Perceptions of the Environmental Remediation Effort in the Milwaukee River Estuary

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and Milwaukee County Parks Department have been working on an environmental remediation project that seeks to remove chemical contaminants and pollution from the Milwaukee River. The purpose of this research is to discover community member’s perceptions on the quality and safety of the Milwaukee River, and determine whether their perspectives on safe and desirable uses of the river differ from those of the organizations overseeing the Great Lake Legacy Act (GLLA) project. The results from this study show that the communities in the project area believe that the quality of the river has improved but it is still unsafe in some ways. This study shows that understanding the perceptions about quality, safety and uses of the river can improve the relationship between remediation organizations and the affected community.