Erick Shambarger: Making Milwaukee “Water Centric”
Meet Erick. Erick Shambarger is the environmental sustainability director for the City of Milwaukee and leads its Environmental Collaboration Office (ECO). “Being a water-centric city is really central to the identity of Milwaukee,” Erick says. “We are a coastal city. We are a freshwater city. Because of our proximity to Lake Michigan we want to do as much as we can not only to build a global brand for Milwaukee around water, but also to make real improvements to the water quality and to our way of life.”
Erick earned a degree in social philosophy and writing from Marquette University and then a master's degree in public affairs and public policy from UW-Madison with an emphasis on energy policy. After graduation Erick started his career in the city budget office where he helped Mayor Tom Barrett write his original green team report. Then he helped to grow the department he now leads. He describes a lifelong interest in the environment and was inspired by innovative water and green infrastructure practices advanced by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which has articulated an ambitious goal to capture 740 million gallons of stormwater with green infrastructure by 2035.
While aspirational goals can help motivate change, it takes a lot of detailed work to actually make change happen within institutions. Erick helped adapt city processes to promote green infrastructure across many different city departments.
“Green infrastructure has [now] become a standard practice in city construction projects,” he says with pride. “We have a comprehensive green infrastructure plan that requires green infrastructure on large developments and our streets. We’ve got a great partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools and the Green Schools Consortium of Milwaukee to take out pavement on schoolyards and replace it with green infrastructure. So, a lot that’s going on.”
Citywide examples of green infrastructure range from “green streets” renovations featuring bioswales along Highland and Sherman boulevards; Fondy Park, where a former building foundation is used underneath a pocket park to manage stormwater from the street adjacent to the popular Lindsay Heights’ farmers market; parking lot renovations at five additional Milwaukee Public Libraries to include porous pavement and bioswales like those also found along E. Greenfield Avenue by the School of Freshwater Sciences; and even parking lot outside Coakley Brothers near the Sixth Street roundabout in Walker’s Point renovated with green infrastructure including an underground cistern and native plants all capable of capturing over 200,000 gallons of water.
“We’re excited about our comprehensive green infrastructure plan. I think about 45% of the city is impervious—at least when we wrote the plan—so there’s a lot of room for taking up pavement and putting in beautiful vegetation that can help us manage water better.”
Water Current Walking Tour signs now show pedestrian connections along Second Street between Harbor View Plaza on E. Greenfield Avenue and Reed Street Yards on Freshwater Way.
Green infrastructure is just one of seven principles articulated in the city’s Water Centric City Initiative, which provides a framework to unite and bolster Milwaukee’s relationship with water. Those principles are water technology; applied water research & policy; green infrastructure; arts, talent, culture, & education; sustainable & healthy water supply; fishable and swimmable rivers; and water leadership.
To further connect for visitors and the public the tech/business aspects of Milwaukee’s water leadership emphasized by the Water Council, headquartered at the Global Water Center on Freshwater Way, and the science/research aspects emphasized by the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, in the Harbor District, in 2020 ECO sponsored the first phase of the Water Current Walking Tour featuring colorful sidewalk stencils and signage along Second Street between the two poles of Milwaukee’s water expertise.
