This project is a cooperative initiative between the Prior Lake Spring Lake Watershed District, the City of Prior Lake, and the Scott Soil and Water Conservation District to implement on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will protect and improve water quality in Spring, Upper Prior and Lower Prior Lakes, water resources of local, regional, and state significance. Spring and Upper Prior Lakes are both impaired and have a completed Total Maximum Daily Load and Implementation Plan.
Regional public projects that are the focus of the proposed project include: Infiltration areas and a sedimentation pond enhancement in subwatersheds N3/N4; Parking lot storm drain rain gardens and a sedimentation pond enlargement in subwatersheds N5/N6; An infiltration area and a sedimentation pond enhancement in subwatersheds S9/S11; Ditch checks along Highway 13 in subwatershed 10.
The 400-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from its headwaters at Lake Itasca to Morrison County near Little Falls is the focus of this project. Working in cooperation with the eight member counties, this project will develop implementation plans and strategies geared specifically for the Mississippi River and incorporate them into the individual County Comprehensive Local Water Plans. These recommendations will be for specific strategies, often crossing county boundaries for implementation.
The Prioritization, Targeting, and Measuring Water Quality Improvement Application (PTMA) connects the general qualitative strategies in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) and the identification of implementable on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs). Leveraging geospatial data from the International Water Institute this application will be developed for two pilot areas within the Red River Basin.
This project will result in the development of three critical pieces of information. They include: 1. Development of restoration and protection strategies for all waterbodies in the district relative to the State's Non-point Source Funding plan 2. Use of PTMApp to tie the WRAPs implementation tables from the Buffalo and Red River Watersheds to targeted on-the-ground projects and practices that will provide measurable water quality improvements, and 3.
Completion of priority assessments to aid in implementing future projects. Three possible assessments have been identified for further consideration. The first is a subwatershed assessment in the South Fork Rush Creek subwatershed in Corcoran, which is adjacent to the previously completed Rush Creek Headwaters SWA. This would identify mainly agricultural BMPs for implementation in partnership with Hennepin County. The second is a feasibility assessment of re-meandering the outlet of Diamond Lake to Diamond Creek, which was identified in the Diamond Creek SWA.
Several lakes in the Shingle Creek watershed have been designated Impaired Waters for excess nutrients, and the Watershed Commission and cities continue to undertake BMPs to reduce total phosphorus and sediment to the lakes to help improve water quality. This project is the completion of subwatershed assessments in two priority areas to identify future BMPs addressing ongoing lake nutrient impairments. The areas are the drainage area to the Gaulke/ Memory Lane/ Hagemeister Pond system tributary to Middle Twin Lake; and the drainage area to Eagle Lake.
Use existing tools and partnerships to meet protection goals and transition to long-term community driven, coordinated management for multiple benefits, including: habitat, water, forest health, local economy and climate resiliency.
Prior Lake, the second most visited lake in the metro, and Spring Lake are both impaired for excess nutrients. The Prior Lake Spring Lake FY 2025 request would seek to fund two projects to reduce nutrients in the upper watershed:
Expanding COMPAS' Prism Arts, MN Teaching Artists from African, Indigenous, and/or Asian heritages, will develop & deliver arts residencies that teach an art form with roots in their cultural heritage. Residencies will include learning the art form's cultural context, artists from that culture who have influenced it, and creating the art form alongside the Teaching Artist. Artists will select the MN community where their residency will be delivered, focusing on increasing access to the art form.
Native Prairie Bank (NPB) will help landowners conserve native prairie though multiple outreach methods, restoration and enhancement of 700 acres, and protection of 130 acres through conservation easements.
