and the rest of the watershed have suffered tremendously from both 35W and
the Crosstown and will suffer much more under this new construction scheme.
The Hale, Page and Diamond Lake Community Association (HPDL) participated in
and helped fund the Blue Water Commission which, among other things,
installed a grit chamber at Diamond Lake. I fear that the good work done by
the Blue Water Commission will be undermined by this construction project.
HPDL will seek to work with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District in
demanding that the Minnesota Department of Transportation agrees to take
measures to protect and improve the water quality of the watershed and
Diamond Lake in particular as a condition to any permitting for construction.
For example, I think that HPDL and the MCWD should require dredging of
Diamond Lake by the Department of Transportation to clean out debris
deposited in the lake by old and new highway operations before issuing any
permit for this construction project along with other efforts to improve
water quality of the watershed. We are already working with the HPDL
Environmental committee and hope to work with residents surrounding Diamond
Lake to bring these concerns to the MCWD.
I hope that we can create the same neighborhood pressure with regard to this
issue that we created last summer on the MAC over the airport tunnel
construction/dewatering issue. I am sure that Pam Blixt and hopefully the
entire MCWD Board will join our concerns in this regard. Please contact me
at (612) 824-2085 or the HPDL office at (612) 824-7707 if you would like to
help on this project.
Scott Benson
Ward 11
Page Neighborhood
In a message dated 1/19/01 9:04:41 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Dear List Members,
The discussion of the proposed expansion and
reconstruction of the "Crosstown" brings to mind the
expression-"the more things change-the more they stay
the same." The "Crosstown" Hwy, Hwy 55/LRT, and the
ongoing expansion of the airport and its related
development, e.g. the "tunnel" (the changes) all have
a continuing negative impact on the Minnehaha Creek
Watershed and its dealing with runnoff and subsurface
water (things that remain the same). I understand and
sympathize with the neighborhood concerns about the
traffic impact that the detours will have on the
surrounding neighborhoods, but I don't want the
Watershed issue to be lost amidst the other concerns.
My ongoing political issue has been that the presence
of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed in the South Mpls and
Richfield area makes for a very, very vunerable
situation. Negative impact of constructions in the
Minnehaha Falls area (Hwy 55/LRT), Airport Expansion
(Mothers and Legion Lake area) and now Crosstown
development (Grass Lake and Diamond Lake Areas) will
have a long term negative impact on the
infrastructure. Remember the battle over the aiport
tunnel and dewatering-that was negative impact. The
Crosstown runs right on the edge of Grass Lake, the
surrounding area of the Legion Lake Wetlands in
Richfield is just to the east of Portland Avenue, and
the Diamond Lake and its surrounding wetlands is to
the north. To refresh your memories it was only about
five years ago that the Diamond Lake Neighborhood had
to fight a battle concerning the runnoff of the,
existing, at that time, 62/35w interchange and the
related major construction of underground piping under
the neighborhood to Minnehaha Creek and the related
runnoff holding areas-only a few years ago. Now we are
back to square one-things remain the same. We have a
natural resource in our back yard, but it is very
vunerable to massive constuction projects and the
damage is irreversible.
Steve Stolarek
Ward 11
