Medley Park Stormwater Treatment Project

The Medley Park Stormwater Treatment Project will transform an underutilized, soggy turf area in a neighborhood park into a stormwater treatment area with water quality benefits, restored wetland and prairie habitat, and educational opportunities. The BCWMC completed a feasibility study for this project in June 2021 that estimates the project will reduce the amount of total phosphorus entering Medicine Lake by 17 pounds per year. Medicine Lake is impaired for nutrients and has an approved TMDL. Cities and the BCWMC have implemented multiple large-scale projects and practices throughout the lake?s watershed. However, this project is one of the few opportunities to reduce pollutants to the lake from the city of Golden Valley. The project takes advantage of underutilized open space within Medley Park to incorporate multiple BMPs including the expansion of an existing, undersized stormwater pond (Medley Pond), dredging and removal of contaminated sediments from the pond, construction of two new stormwater ponds with wetland fringes, and diversion of an intermittent stream into the new ponds. All together the project increases the water quality treatment volume in the park by 4.3 acre-feet, adds 0.6 acres of native prairie and pollinator habitat, and adds 0.6 acres of wetland habitat surrounding the new ponds. The project also provides significant flood reduction and climate resiliency benefits, creating 8.3 acre-feet of flood storage to remove three homes from the 100-year flooding event and six homes from the 25-year storm event. The funding request and match included in this application is based solely on construction of the water quality components of the project, totaling $402,800. The estimated cost for the entire project including complete project design and construction of the flood storage expansion components is $1.3M.