Wauwatosa’s Hartung Park receives award for water management.
Hartung Park in Wauwatosa was awarded as a Green Luminary green space by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District April 10.
The park near the intersection of West Keefe Avenue and Menomonee River Parkway opened in 2010 at the site of the old Hartung Quarry that supplied rocks used to construct area buildings.
The MMSD website describes Green Luminaries as spaces that "help protect our rivers and Lake Michigan by adapting practices that harvest rainfall for other uses or mimic nature by draining it into the ground to reduce water pollution."
A release from Wauwatosa Mayor Kathy Ehley’s office said the Green Luminaries Award acknowledges the work done by the collaboration of the city of Milwaukee, city of Wauwatosa and a group of volunteers who worked together over the past 14 years to make the park what it is today.
"It’s transformed from a quarry to a landfill and now a park that uses green infrastructure to help keep water pollution out of Milwaukee-area rivers and Lake Michigan," MMSD Public information Manager Bill Graffin said.
The Green Luminaries Award, given monthly, acknowledges projects, big or small, which ultimately help protect our rivers and Lake Michigan through storm water management, according to a news release.
The projects are led by people who recognize the need to innovate and create lasting good works that connect people and prosperity to the environment.
Wauwatosa Alderman Jason Wilke and Hartung Park Neighborhood Association Board member Mary Richter accepted the award at the MMSD board meeting.