Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment raises revenue for Clean Water, Outdoor Heritage, Parks and Trails, and Arts and Cultural Heritage. Libraries are beneficiaries of a portion of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Funding.
Imminent Health Threat (IHT) systems are those that are discharging improperly treated human waste onto the ground surface or into surface waters. In addition to the potential water quality impacts, untreated sewage has the potential to introduce bacteria and viruses into the environment. When IHT systems are identified, county or city staff assist the homeowners through the process required to bring their systems into compliance with the septic ordinance.
Successful long-term treatment of sewage depends on a system capable of providing adequate treatment and effective on-going operation and maintenance. Clean Water Fund Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) Program Enhancement and Inventory funds are used by counties to strengthen programs dedicated to SSTS ordinance management and enforcement. These funds are used for a variety of tasks required to successfully implement a local SSTS program including inventories, enforcement, and databases to insure SSTS maintenance reporting programs.
Volunteer Coordinator position to recruit, coordinate, and lead Natural Resource Volunteers in land stewardship and wildlife monitoring projects. A? The person would also lead volunteers in performing responsible natural resource and environmental work.
Education coordinator position to develop and implement environmental educational programs including general environmental programs and site specific programs including presentations, tours, lectures, field labs, and nature observations at St. Paul regional parks and trails.
Having current and accurate data on historic and archaeological sites is important to understanding our past and to preserving Minnesota’s history for future generations. In 2010-2011, the Minnesota Historical Society awarded contracts for these survey projects:
To grow the capacity of the organization to preserve and interpret history through a national training standard, the Firefighter's Hall and Museum completed four of six areas of the StEPs Program at the Bronze level. The areas completed were the Mission, Values and Governance, Management, Audience and Interpretation sections. The FHM does not have historic structures or landscapes so that area does not apply. The Collections area was too large to complete before the June deadline. The Museum plans to continue the StEPs work and the collections project is a top priority.
Partner Organizations: Anoka County Historical Society, Hennepin History Museum.
Suburbanization has reached nearly all corners of Hennepin and Anoka Counties. The two counties are bound together by the state's largest school district: Anoka-Hennepin. Working together, the Anoka and Hennepin County Historical Societies are gathering resources located in numerous repositories so that they, and future historians, will have a logical starting place from which to draw information about the suburbanization of Anoka and Hennepin counties.
Stubbs Bay on Lake Minnetonka is impaired for excess nutrients due to phosphorus loading. This impairment results in nuisance algae blooms that limit the recreational use of this water body. As a part of its surface water management planning process, the City of Orono has identified projects to help improve the water quality of Stubbs Bay and Lake Minnetonka. The Stubbs Bay Ravine Stabilization project is one of the projects scheduled for completion in 2011.
This project will complete a Acetochlor Impairment Response Report. This report will combine and coordinate information relating to actions being done in direct response to the acetochlor water quality impairments with those being done and support MDA’s on-going responsibility to assure pesticides are used in a manner that does not cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.
This project will provide additional monitoring data to be utilized in the watershed assessment process for the Le Sueur River Watershed Project. Monitoring will take place for an additional year at two sites along the Maple River.
This project will identify priority management zones (PMZ), for the purposes of water quality restoration and protection, within the LeSueur River major watershed. This project is only one component of a larger effort in the LeSueur watershed to complete Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies while engaging citizens and landowners in land management planning.
The Pine County SWCD project will collect complete sets of water quality data for the Kettle River and some of its tributaries and also collect complete sets of water quality data for six area lakes (Oak, Dago, Rhine, Elbow, Rock, and Lake Eleven).
This project will collect water quality data at eight stream sites in three of the MPCA targeted watersheds. The sites are located on Medary Creek, Flandreau Creek, Pipestone Creek (2), Split Rock Creek, Rock River, Poplar Creek and Chanarambie Creek. This project will also promote a citizens monitoring program and encourage individuals to participate in a monitoring program.
This comprehensive water sampling program will assess the water quality of six sites: two main points on the Rock River, two main tributaries to the Rock River, and two points where streams leave the state (Mud and Beaver Creek) for a period of two years.
The grant funded the execution of four maps and the acquisition of ten photographs for reproduction in the book, A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity, which is scheduled for release by the University of Nebraska Press in 2012. The addition of these maps and photos to the educational resources of the Pond Dakota Heritage Society helps to clarify the story of American-Dakota contact, especially in relationship to the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War.
The Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA), a nine County/SWCD JPO has identified buffers as a basin priority. This initiative will work towards the goal of identifying all DNR protected shoreland in the GBERBA counties without a 50 foot vegetative buffer. Buffer strips protect surface and groundwater from a multitude of pollutants. During stormwater run off events buffers can remove between 50 and 100 percent of nutrients, pesticides, pathogens, and sediment. The estimated sediment reduction for this project is 756 tons per year prevented from entering our waters.
Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment raises revenue for Clean Water, Outdoor Heritage, Parks and Trails, and Arts and Cultural Heritage. Libraries are beneficiaries of a portion of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Funding.
This project will complete a chloride management plan which will lay out a strategy for addressing chloride impacts to our surface waters for the 7-county metropolitan area. This chloride management plan will satisfy EPA requirements for impaired waters, address waters not yet listed, and develop a strategy to protect waters that are currently meeting the water quality standards.
This project will provide the MPCA and all local partners in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) the information and tools necessary to improve and/or maintain water quality with respect to chloride for the 7-county metropolitan area during the winter maintenace period.
This project will provide modeling services to support the completion of the Typo Lake and Martin Lake Excess Nutrients TMDL report. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report quantifies pollutant levels, identifies sources of pollution, and proposes ways to bring water quality back to an acceptable level.
Complete the update to the 1975 Phalen Regional Park Master Plan begun with 2010 Parks and Trails Fund grant to respond to current facility conditions, demographics, regional recreation trends, and sustainable carrying capacity. ?Includes planning for Phalen and Round Lakes in St. Paul Park's jurisdiction and coordination with Ramsey County Park's plans for Keller and Spoon Lake Regional Park.
Phalen Keller Regional Park, design and construct improvements to picnic shelters, redevelop trails and include ADA requirements, retaining walls and utilities.
This project will provide the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and analyze relevant data, identify pollutant sources, hold a stakeholder meeting, and gather information towards the future development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan.