This project will increase the ability of the Carver County Water Management Organization (CCWMO) to approach local community partners and fund projects that treat stormwater runoff at the source instead of treating stormwater downstream at a regional pond or through other large scale best management practices (BMPs). The CCWMO will target three geographic areas that have demonstrated strong community involvement, effective partner relationships, and support for the goal of improving water quality of locally impaired waters or regionally significant water body.
The Carver County Planning and Water Management Department (PWM) has an active well sealing cost share program. Following the adoption of the updated County Groundwater Plan in February of 2016, the Carver County Board of Commissioners moved to accelerate the program to encourage landowners to seal abandoned wells. Carver County is looking to supplement existing funds, as demand is expected to increase. With this additional funding, it is the goal of Carver County PWM to seal an additional 15 wells county wide.
Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) will improve water quality in Casey Lake and ultimately Kohlman Lake through the installation of approximately 25 rain gardens on priority properties identified as part of the Casey Lake Urban Stormwater Retrofit Assessment completed by Ramsey Conservation District (RCD) in 2011.
This 3-part project is developing and installing shoreline buffer projects on Ten Mile Lake, and the Roosevelt, Lawrence, Leavitt Lake area (RALALA).An additional part will correct roadway erosion contributing to sedimentation and water quality degradation on Buxton Road between McKeowen and Mann Lakes. Woodrow Township will work with Cass County SWCD/ESD and adjacent landowners to construct sedimentation basins and rain gardens and restructure the roadbed by reducing the slope to eliminate erosion and sedimentation.
Crow Wing SWCD is building off its success with Project Recharge and expanded the program to target Gull and Big Trout lakes. The SWCD selected these two lakes because of their declining transparency readings, 25 interested landowners, 2 adjacent resorts, and the community support, past partnerships, valuable fisheries, high ratio of forested land, and low ratio of impervious area in the lakeshed.The SWCD worked with partners to find willing landowners and businesses to complete the following types of projects:Swap Rock for Native Stock: Implement bioengineering to stabilize shorelines.
CCWMO will oversee four separate feasibility studies with the goal of producing plan sets and cost estimates for future projects, as well as writing a feasibility study that meets all BWSR requirements for the management of carp.
The Pennington SWCD has collaborated with Pennington County for several years to identify priority County Ditch reaches that are in need of buffers and grade stabilization structures. This cooperative effort has resulted in the reduction of nutrient and sediment delivery to the Red Lake River Watershed. Pennington SWCD has recently inventoried buffer and grade stabilization needs on three different County Ditch systems: 96, 21 and 16. A total of 23 miles of ditch has been inventoried, 15 miles of buffer are needed along with 81 grade stabilization structures.
In 2002, citizens began to notice severe algal blooms in Cedar Lake, a high value recreational lake with exceptional clarity and fisheries habitat. Clearwater River Watershed District (CRWD) began an intensive monitoring program in 2003 to identify nutrient sources and protect Cedar Lake. Through intensive lake and watershed monitoring, CRWD identified the major source of nutrients to the lake. Three nutrient impaired shallow lakes; Swartout, Albion and Henshaw Lakes, in the upper watershed and impaired wetlands discharge excess amounts of soluble phosphorus.
The entities of the Cedar - Wapsipinicon watershed planning area hope to achieve the Cedar - Wapsipinicon Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan goals, including surface water quality, groundwater quality, excessive sedimentation and erosion, and flooding goals. Work includes cost-share incentives, project development, technical/engineering assistance, education/outreach, and administration/grant reporting.
This project targets stabilizing 900+ feet of eroding shoreline in the Cedar Lake Farms Regional Park converting it into a healthy native buffer on Cedar Lake.The project addresses phosphorus loading by reducing erosion from unstable shoreline banks adjacent to Cedar Lake. This will increase infiltration, intercept upland runoff, and stabilize the soil at the water's edge to decrease erosion and the addition of phosphorus into the lake. It is estimated that a shoreline stabilization at Cedar Lake will reduce 12-25 lbs/ year phosphorus depending on the regression rate.
Cedar and Farm Island are large recreational lakes located in the Aitkin/Brainerd Lakes area. Both lakes are showing significant downward trends in water clarity. The trend coincides with watershed development that increases water runoff. This project seeks to reverse that trend before these lakes degrade further and become impaired. Changing land uses now through incentives is a very cost-effective way to manage these lakes.
The Cedar River Watershed District was established in 2007 to identify and fix the water quality impairments in the Cedar River. After several years of monitoring and modeling, the district has developed the requisite background data to drill down on the 25 most crucial areas for targeted treatment. In 2015, a Capitol Improvement Plan was developed to prioritize and rank the most critical projects within the priority list. The District is requesting Clean Water Funding to implement the highest ranking projects, which are shovel ready for timely construction.
Lambert Creek discharges into Vadnais Lake, the final impoundment reservoir containing the potable water supply for the city of St. Paul and eight nearby suburbs. Monitoring data indicates high nutrient levels and the creek is listed by the State as having high bacterial levels. In-stream work along Lambert Creek has been maximized with restoration improvements achieving nutrient load reduction. The next step to further improve water quality is to concentrate on restoration efforts on a subwatershed level.
Most if not all people in the Rum River watershed get their drinking water from groundwater meaning groundwater quality is of utmost importance. The purpose of this project is to complement citizen and decision maker awareness of the relationship between unsealed wells, groundwater and drinking water. This project proposes to provide resources that will enable these landowners to take action on their land to protect groundwater quality by sealing unused and abandoned wells.
In 2010, Legislation allocated Clean Water Fund (CWF) dollars to the Anoka Conservation District to initiate an 11 county metro subwatershed assessment program. The purpose of subwatershed assessments is to improve water quality, increase groundwater recharge and reduce runoff volumes. These goals are achieved by identifying opportunities in the subwatersheds most contributing to the degradation of the high priority water bodies and developing designs for Best Management Practices (BMPs) that treat stormwater runoff.
The Chain of Lakes Targeted Reduction project will utilize Clean Water Funds to address bank erosion and install vegetated buffers along tributaries to the Eden Valley Chain of Lakes using the SRWD's incentivized Hayed Buffer Program. The Eden Valley Chain of Lakes (Vails Lake, Eden Lake and North Browns Lake) drain into the main segment of the Sauk River Chain of Lakes (SRCL) from the south. Impaired for excessive nutrients, this southern series of lakes is influenced by inflows from private ditches and perennial and intermittent streams.
The LeSueur River has been identified as one of the leading contributors of sediment to the Minnesota River. A majority of this sediment has been determined to come from the banks, bluffs and ravines located along the river. This project focuses on a one mile reach of the LeSueur River where stream channel migration and mass wasting are significantly eroding four bluffs. Two township roads and many houses are in danger of falling into the river.
The Chief's Coulee drainage area, in northern Thief River Falls, has been identified as a source of flooding and water quality concerns through inspection and water quality sampling. Once a natural drainage course, many diverse land uses now surround the Coulee which include agriculture, industrial railroad yards, grain elevators, recycling operators, residential development, and municipal street department facilities. Extremely high concentrations of pollutants and water quality indicators, such as E.
The Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes Stormwater Retrofit Assessment has assessed 54 small watersheds for the optimal locations for best management practices. A long list of Best Management Practices has been identified, the next step is to design and install the most cost effective projects.
This project aims to reduce pollutant loading to Mille Lacs Lake by working with the City of Wahkon to develop a comprehensive stormwater management plan for the City of Wahkon, located on the south side of the lake. Wahkon has no stormwater facilities and pollutant laden runoff flows into Mille Lacs Lake, untreated. This project will delineate and model stormwater flow in the City of Wahkon watershed, prioritize and target BMPs in the city watershed and conduct outreach to keep all stakeholders informed and build buy-in for future project implementation.
Pine Soil and Water Conservation District is partnering with the City of Sturgeon Lake to seal over 50% of the unused wells in the city limits. The City of Sturgeon Lake recently installed a municipal water supply system, and completed a Minnesota Department of Health approved Wellhead Protection Plan. Residents have connected to the new public water supply system and need to seal their unused wells.
Improving stormwater management in Grand Marais is a priority for the community. The Cook County Comprehensive Water Plan identifies water quality and quantity concerns related to residential development include increased runoff from roads, parking areas, roofs, etc. into Lake Superior.
The City of Brainerd will stabilize the 1.4-acre gulley that has eroded over 8,706 tons of sediment since 1985. The erosion started after the city constructed a conveyance pipe along Buffalo Hills Lane City Road. The current gully is unstable and poses significant risks to city and public infrastructures, three stormwater outfalls, ten private properties, and houses. Since the 1990s, this gully has transported 100 percent of bank and bed erosion to Little Buffalo Creek and the Mississippi River (HR Green Inc.).
This project would educate residents and provide assistance to the City of Le Center in sealing an unused/abandoned municipal well. One municipal well has been identified as a high risk due to impacting the groundwater and drinking water supply to the City of Le Center.
The City of Minnetonka and its residents highly value the water resources within the community, which include approximately ten lakes, four streams, and hundreds of wetlands. The City has been progressive in protecting these resources through policies and management strategies, and now wants to increase their on-the-ground efforts in protecting and improving water quality. The City hopes to conduct targeted watershed assessments for fourteen selected priority water bodies to identify and optimize the type and locations of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to be installed.
With a population of approximately 3,500, the City of Mora is the largest municipality in the Snake River watershed. Monitoring indicates the city's Lake Mora has high levels of total phosphorus, total suspended solids, and other pollutants. This project will develop a plan that identifies several stormwater best management practices (BMPs) for the City of Mora and surrounding rural areas to address these impairments. Modeling and analysis will be used to target projects where they can provide the most benefit.
The purpose of this project is to project the ground water aquifer serving the City of Long Prairie through assisting low income landowners in the replacement of 12 sub-surface treatment systems that have been documented as failing to protect groundwater within the Long Prairie Drinking Water Supply Management Area. Although the primary driver is ground water protection, replacing these failing systems will also protect surface water of which Lake Charlotte is in close proximity.
Sediment and water quality issues are local priorities within the Thief River and Red Lake River watersheds, which have their confluence in the city of Thief River Falls. The 1W1P effort underway in the Red Lake River Watershed will identify opportunities for projects and practices that are targeted and result in measurable water quality benefits throughout the watershed using PTMApp.
The nine member Counties and Soil and Water Conservation Districts of the Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA) will be able to enhance our effectiveness to provide elevated levels of technical assistance, education and outreach in the areas of urban stormwater, wellhead protection, nutrient management, conservation agronomy, drainage and agricultural best management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollution in the Blue Earth, Le Sueur and Watonwan River Watersheds.
