Long Lake Shore Rehabilitation and Stormwater Treatment

This project will install practices to improve water quality in Long Lake, Isanti Co. We will install at least 350 linear feet of restored lakeshore and 3,000 sq ft of native plant stormwater treatment with an emphasis on bioengineering techniques, native plants and locating buffers/swales/rain gardens at points of concentrated overland flow into the lake. By targeting properties that are eroding and/or with concentrated overland flow to the lake we will reduce suspended solids discharge by 6,300 lbs/yr and phosphorus by 0.6 lbs/yr. We will also establish emergent native plants which indirectly improve water quality. This project has two purposes. First is to improve water quality in this impaired lake. The area presently has no stormwater treatment. Lakeshore buffers placed at locations with concentrated overland flow to the lake will serve as the only stormwater treatment in the drainage area, achieving large first cut reductions for the entire up-gradient area. Second, the project is part of a larger effort to change the culture of intense lakeshore manicuring that impacts water quality at this lake and others. Grant funds are sought to expand a 7 year-old program by the Long Lake Improvement District (LLID) for near-shore water quality projects. That program has installed 19 projects to date, but present demand exceeds locally available funding. Each project will require an erosion correction component, using bioengineering techniques and native vegetation. The Isanti SWCD will use grant funds to provide a sub-grant to the Long Lake Improvement Association (LLIA) for project installations. The Long Lake Improvement District (LLID) will contribute to the project by providing cash match ($4,800 annually) and managing project installations in cooperation with Hayland Woods Native Nursery. Landowners will provide labor as in-kind match.