Jones Island Treatment Plant Slides, circa 1930

Biography/History

The Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant was opened in 1925. The plant was built on Jones Island, then still an island in the Milwaukee Harbor. At the time it was the nation’s largest facility for the treatment of wastewater using the waste activated sludge process. This process uses microorganisms to feed on the waste in the water, thereby cleaning the waste out of the water.