City of Cromwell Stormwater Improvement Project

The people of the Tamarack River Watershed make up a tight-knit rural community who take pride in where they live and care deeply for the land and water. As a result, they formed the Big Sandy Area Lakes Watershed Management Project (BSALWMP) group in 1991 with a goal of bringing together stakeholders to protect and enhance water resources in an area that includes the Tamarack River Watershed. This motivated group has worked on a variety of watershed improvement projects over the years, funded by MPCA Clean Water Partnership and EPA Section 319 grants. In addition, they were involved in the WRAPS process which identified stormwater in Cromwell as an important BMP for water quality improvement in Tamarack River subwatershed. During this time, a group of local organizations (including BSALWMP) started meeting to formulate a plan for the City of Cromwell Park. The park serves as the focal point of the community, providing a community/event center, playground, volleyball courts, horse arena and a Veterans Memorial, equaling about 0.52 acres of impervious surface. The Tamarack River (a designated wild rice water) flows through the property and is the receiving water from the park runoff. The group identified stormwater as a concern in the park, and together they funded preliminary stormwater designs. Our proposed project will address the second phase of the project by funding construction of 4 rain garden and 2 swale ditch treatment areas in the park. In addition, the BSALWMP group will use the park project as an educational opportunity to encourage similar projects on private properties in the watershed. The BSALWMP group will find interested landowners and will run a cost share program to construct these projects. The result will not only reduce rain runoff, TSS and Phosphorus into a valuable wild rice river, but will be used to promote the resource and motivate the entire community to protect and restore the watershed.