County targets little stream that’s a big deal for fish

Ozaukee County officials hope to restore Mineral Springs Creek in Port Washington after it was washed out by a severe rainfall in August 2018, impeding passage of salmon and native species of fish upstream to spawn.

They hope to do so with the help of several grants totaling $395,500.

Between 2013 and 2017, the county Planning and Parks Department, the City of Port Washington and We Energies worked on several fish passage projects on the creek, which runs from the Port Washington industrial park northeast until it joins Sauk Creek near the We Energies power plant.

Officials say it is one of the county’s most significant streams for spawning fish. 

“It’s one of our most productive streams,” Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told the county Natural Resources Committee, which approved the grant applications last month.

In August 2018, the creek experienced an intense rainstorm that dropped more than nine inches of rain in less than 24 hours, exceeding the 500-year storm event, scouring the stream bed and causing the stream bed to drop two to three feet downstream of Ravine Street, exposing a sanitary sewer line.

In response, the city built a dam with a 2.5-foot vertical drop to prevent further erosion but which also created a major barrier for fish passage and undermined much of the work that had been completed to restore fish passage.

The grant funds will be used to regrade and vegetate the ravine slopes and rebuild the stream bed with larger stone that can resist movement during future storms and that will allow fish passage past the dam. 

The committee recommended applying for an $87,500 Fund for Lake Michigan grant, which would be combined with  $285,000 in grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Sustain Our Great Lakes and the state Department of Natural Resources. 

The City of Port Washington also would contribute $12,500 to the project. The county would contribute about $10,000 in staff time and in-kind contributions. 

The county also had hoped to secure a Wisconsin Coastal Management Program grant but that program requires permanent public access to the project area, which is located on private properties.

Stone for the stream bed is already piled along the creek but Struck said it likely will be late 2021 or 2022 before work on the project is completed.