> From: Dave Porter >
>> Maybe there should be a "Bassett Creek Watershed District" to come up
with some of the initial funds needed to bring more parks into north
Minneapolis? >>
I agree. I am in favor of watershed areas pitching in to help
establish greenspace/parkland that will improve water quality. This
greenspace/parkland can be located in and around stormwater treatment ponds,
infiltration basins, and infiltration swales. Many Infiltration basins and
swales can be established with many types of native wildflowers, grasses and
shrubs (these planted garden infiltration basins are sometimes referred to
as raingardens).
Actually, simply vegetated land is good for the watershed - that is if
chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not used. I have heard it said that,
on average in Minnesota, over 90% of the rain that falls on well vegetated
land, soaks into the ground near where it lands - and thus does not enter
the storm sewer system. But this is a city afterall, so more intense
rainwater runoff treatment is probably required to gain watershed funding.
I have heard that approximately $6 million is being kicked into the Hollman
Near North project by the Middle Mississippi watershed area.
The Hollman area was up until recently part of the Bassett Creek watershed.
The size of the Bassett Creek watershed area in Minneapolis has just been,
or is about to be, cut approximately in half. As I understand it, the land
where rain water still flows into the open creek will remain part of the
Bassett Creek watershed. And land where rain water no longer flows into the
open creek is changing over to the become part of the Middle Mississippi
watershed. Even the Bassett Creek water itself will no longer be in the
Bassett Creek watershed after it drops into the huge storm sewer tunnel
about four blocks west of Lyndale Ave.
The first and only stormwater treatment pond in the Harrison Neighborhood
ran into a buzzsaw of opposition. After it was built, some neighborhood
people were very upset because they were afraid that children would drown in
the pond. The pond was thus completely surrounded by a chainlink fence with
a locked gate.
Dave Stack
Harrison
