The Plymouth Creek Restoration Project will improve water quality in Plymouth Creek and Medicine Lake, the creek's primary receiving water. The project will reduce total phosphorus and suspended sediment in Plymouth Creek and Medicine Lake stemming from streambank erosion. Streambank erosion is a common source of pollution, particularly in developed landscapes where flows in streams are considered flashy and can easily scour unprotected and disturbed streambanks.
This project engages private property owners including non-profits, businesses, and institutions, in the Harrison Neighborhood of Near North Minneapolis to install storm water best management practices. The BMPs will reduce pollution in Bassett Creek including chlorides and bacteria, for which the creek is impaired. The primary focus is on Glenwood Avenue, a focal point in the community and a highly impervious area.
Fish Lake is 238 acres and does not meet state water quality standards due to excessive nutrients. Through the Total Maximum Daily Load study, a recommendation was made to treat the lake with alum to achieve the state's water quality standards. The goal of this project is to reduce the phosphorus load to Fish Lake by 310 pounds per year and meet the needed phosphorus reduction goal. The project will be completed as a partnership between the Elm Creek Water Management Commission, Three Rivers Park District, the City of Maple Grove, and The Fish Lake Area Resident's Association.
The purpose of this project is to conduct a subwatershed assessment of that part of the City of Minneapolis that is within the Shingle Creek watershed. This subwatershed drains to three Impaired Waters: Crystal Lake, Ryan Lake, and Shingle Creek. The assessment will identify the most feasible and cost-effective best management practices for retrofit in this densely urban, fully developed subwatershed. The project includes workshops with neighborhood organizations to help them educate residents and organize implementation projects.
Both Minnehaha Creek and Lake Hiawatha are on the State Impaired Waters List and have had Total Maximum Daily Load Studies completed. The proposed work would focus on park land along Minnehaha Creek which is a highly-recreated corridor with public trail systems throughout. In 2014, the District experienced record flooding resulting in substantial erosion and tree loss along Minnehaha Creek. In 2015, the District completed an assessment of flood damage and received FEMA funding for bank repair at 31 sites along the Creek within Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board property.
Seven lakes and four streams in the Elm Creek watershed are impaired by excess nutrients, bacteria, low oxygen, and unhealthy biotic communities. Modeling completed for the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy identified areas that contribute high loads of sediment and nutrients to the streams and lakes in the watershed, however, the scale of that modeling was not sufficient to pinpoint to the field level where BMPs would be most effective. The Rush Creek Headwaters Subwatershed Assessment will evaluate four high pollutant loading catchments.
In partnership with Metro Blooms, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) will implement stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) at a minimum of six properties along commercial nodes targeted for re-investment by the City of Minneapolis' Business District Support program.
The objective of the project is to develop a targeted stormwater implementation and outreach program focused on non-profit partners. The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District is a 50 square mile fully-developed watershed with 15 major lakes and over twenty miles of creek system. Given that much development in this area occurred prior to the era of stormwater management regulations, runoff from many sites is untreated prior to discharge to downstream water bodies.
