Pam Ritger: Clean Wisconsin Dedicated to Helping Reduce Flood Risk

Meet Pam. Pam Ritger is Milwaukee program director and staff attorney with Clean Wisconsin, a statewide environmental organization that installs rain barrels and rain gardens across Milwaukee’s northwest side in neighborhoods hit especially hard by flooding after intense storms in 2010.

“A lot of our work here in Milwaukee, especially on the northwest side, has been around promoting green stormwater infrastructure as a way to complement other flood mitigation efforts and build communities that are more resilient to climate change,” she says.

Pam used to work in immigration law, but the urgency of climate change captured her attention. (In Milwaukee, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms, which can cause flooding and degrade water quality when stormwater overwhelms heavily paved urban areas.) In grad and law school at UW-Madison, Pam focused on energy and the environment before returning to serve her hometown Milwaukee where she raises three young daughters. For the past eight years, Pam has put her knowledge to work planning, promoting, and supporting green stormwater infrastructure—in ways that also ensure it equitably benefits underserved Milwaukeeans.

Since 2014, Clean Wisconsin has worked with Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to help install residents install hundreds of rain barrels and rain gardens across Milwaukee’s northwest side. Although each manages just a small amount of rain, cumulatively all these practices make a difference—capable of intercepting over 40,000 gallons of water.

“That's what's exciting about green infrastructure work in general. Everybody can play a part in it. I think that's what excites communities,” Pam says. “Everybody can have a rain barrel, a rain garden, on their property. They can talk with their neighbors about it. They can better improve their understanding of how these practices can improve water quality for our rivers, for Lake Michigan and really actively be a part of that.”

Rain barrels also provide residents with water for gardens, and the native plants in rain gardens both soak up water and beautify neighborhoods—destressing both people and native pollinators. “The pollinators really love having the milkweed and the Black-Eyed Susan, all of those important native plants that in a lot places that are wiped off the landscape but our pollinators need.”

Through her work on the northwest side, Pam has witnessed dramatic change over the past decade as people unite around what green infrastructure can mean not just for managing water but also restoring communities—providing work, pride, and purpose for young people.

“I really love how our younger generations—Millennials, Gen Z—they really are stepping up,” Pam says. “They want to become part of the solution. They know that they can. They know that they have a voice and that they can be part of the solutions and their community around them.”

Green Tech Station is a rallying point that helps focus attention on the many examples of green infrastructure distributed throughout Milwaukee’s northwest side beyond even residential rain barrels and rain gardens. Nearby, the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works has installed “green alleys” where water infiltrates through porous pavers instead of rushing straight to sewers. In the surrounding area, MMSD has built two large vegetated stormwater basins (and is planning a third) to manage excess stormwater during heavy rains to reduce the risk of flooding in a heavily paved area that historically was home to streams and wetlands. Milwaukee Public Schools have installed cisterns and bioswales at schoolyards including North Division High School in 2021, with Ben Franklin in 2022.