At 10:10 AM 7/19/04 -0700, ken bradley wrote: >Hello Minneapolis Folks, > >Minneapolis and other government agencies have invested a significant >amount of money to improve the water quality of our lakes. > >Who can provide information about the improvements? There are three entities that have had a significant lead role in protecting and improving water quality in Minneapolis lakes. These entities are the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Minnehaha Creek Watershed District MCWD has funded, designed, built and operated more than $8 million in improvements in Minneapolis since 1995. These include storm water treatment facilities and other projects at Lake Calhoun, Lake Nokomis, Cedar Lake and near Diamond Lake. The District has funded and/or built cooperative projects with other entities to control erosion on Minnehaha Creek, to protect Lake Nokomis from storm water pollution, to restore wetlands, shoreline and to provide educational resources to the public and schools. In addition, MCWD has monitored water quality in lakes all over the District, including Minneapolis lakes since 1968. Each year, the District publishes an annual water quality report and report cards for each lake in the monitoring program. It can be found at http://minnehahacreek.org/ MCWD Contact: Eric Evenson, Administrator Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board The MPRB monitors water quality in the Minneapolis lakes under an informal agreement with MCWD and has led many projects aimed at water quality protection, that are too numerous to mention here. The MPRB received a multi-million dollar Clean Water Partnership Grant in the 1990s that resulted in multiple projects and programs for lake water quality including storm water control, treatment of some of the lakes, street sweeping, public education and awareness, wetland restoration as well as many projects for restoration of eroded banks on Minnehaha Creek. MPRB Contact: Judd Rietkerk Minnesota Pollution Control Agency The largest Cleanwater Partnership Grant ever implemented in Minnesota was for the Minneapolis Lakes. MPCA funding was provided for multiple qualified projects undertaken by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. MPCA Contact: Bruce Wilson > >Has the water quality improved since the numerous wetlands and storm water >projects have been completed and by how much? > The projects were done to improve water quality and in some cases to protect good water quality where it already existed but was threatened. In some cases there was a fairly dramatic increase in water quality, such as Cedar Lake, after storm water ponds were built and the Lake was treated to reduce nutrients in the water. In Lake Calhoun, good water quality has been maintained by new storm water ponds near the southwest shore and an in-lake treatment to reverse a trend of nutrient buildup in the water toward the later part of the summer. In still other cases, like Lake Nokomis, projects are not yet complete so there has been no noticeable change. However, just this year MCWD removed several thousand tons of sediment that was collected by the storm water ponds from in-coming storm sewers at Lake Calhoun in just a few years. That sediment contained several thousand pounds of nutrients which would likely grow large amounts of algae once in the lake. More detailed information is available in the 2003 reports for many of the Minneapolis Lakes from the MCWD or the MPRB. >Has the city met benchmarks for previous stated goals, prior to the >wetlands and other improvements being built? The Chain of Lakes project met its goals; the Nokomis project is too new to tell and isn't really finished. The City of Minneapolis needs to meet National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) goals for its permit. > >What would be the next priorities for the city and other agencies to take >on to improve water quality in our lakes, rivers, and creeks? Both the MCWD and MPRB have plans in the works for addressing new priorities including bacteria issues associated with public swimming and canoeing areas, a visioning process to address erosion and creek bank restoration, and both entities are participating in the City of Minneapolis Water Quality Task Force. In addition to these new priorities, MCWD and the City of Minneapolis both regulate the storm water impact of new construction and development. MCWD has had rules that limit the amount of nutrient export from new construction areas for quite some time and is investigating the practicality of implementing nutrient export limits aimed at achieving specific water quality goals unique to each lake receiving storm water runoff. Pam Blixt Nokomis East Neighborhood Minnehaha Creek Watershed Board member REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
