CRWD Fall 2007 newsletter

Our mission is to protect, manage and improve the water resources of the Capitol Region Watershed District.

1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 St. Paul, MN 55108

INSIDE

651-644-8888 651-644-8894 fax

2 When It Rains It Pours 3 Raingardens Looking Good

www.capitolregionwd.org

3 What’s in the Water?

4 Greening Your Garage

Capitol Region Watershed District Fall 2007

CRWD Watershed Rules: A Requirement to Protect n urban areas like the cities within Capitol Region Watershed District, there is significant development and redevelopment of land: the creation of condominiums, retail stores, municipal buildings and parking lots creates a constant buzz of construction throughout the District.

I

Greening Your Garage A Green Roof workshop hosted by Capitol Region Watershed District and Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District

Monday, October 15, 6:30-8:30 pm Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, # 4, St. Paul

What’s a green roof?

The term “green roof” refers to a vegetated roof cover made up of living plants, a growing medium, a drainage layer and a waterproofing membrane. Green roofs provide retention, filtration, cooling and volume reduction of stormwater. Green roofs also minimize impervious land coverage and extend the life of the roof.

For more information about green roofs, visit Minnesota Green Roofs Council at http://www.mngreenroofs.org.

Workshop is free of charge.

Pre-registration is required.

Contact Elizabeth at 651-644-8888 or elizabeth@capitolregionwd.org.

This workshop is presented by RoofBloom, a resource for homeowners interested in having a green roof on their garage, porch, shed or other small outbuilding.You’ll learn all about small green roofs - their benefits and design considerations, and how to install and maintain your own.

RoofBloom is a collaboration of Minnesota Green Roofs Council, Cermak Rhoades Architects and Emmons and Olivier Resources.

Protect continued from front page

Kelley also inspects sites to ensure that stormwater management devices are properly installed. Once a project is complete, a final inspection is conducted and the stormwater management devices are cleaned out before the permit is closed, followed by annual inspections to ensure the owner is maintaining the system to function as designed.

In 2003,The Center for Watershed Protection in Washington D.C. showed that when an area is more than 25% paved, the water bodies in that watershed are severely degraded – water quality is significantly diminished and habitat condition is poor.With more than 40% impervious cover in the Capitol Region Watershed District, our lakes and streams need all the protection we can provide.

Enforcement of the Watershed Rules is an important first step in that direction.

To view the CRWD Watershed Rules, visit http://www.capitolregionwd.org.

Water quality is directly related to how we use land. So to protect water quality, CRWD adopted Watershed Rules in 2006 to address both short- and longterm stormwater management needs.The Rules require land developers to control runoff pollution from construction sites by protecting areas susceptible to erosion and sediment loss. Equally important is that The Rules require development projects to use permanent controls for postconstruction stormwater management through a variety of technologies.

“Swirl separators” like this one are permanent BMPs that treat stormwater on site. This device allows sediment to settle out of stormwater before it enters the storm drain system.

The Permitting Program ensures both short-term and long-term stormwater management.

be present in sediment, further contaminating waterways. Sediment is also a source of nutrient pollution since phosphorus adheres to soil particles. Excess nutrients lead to algae overgrowth which depletes oxygen.

Requirement to Protect

A Dirty Problem

With the long-term health of our watershed at stake, the District set out to Polluted runoff is a serious threat to develop and adopt science-based water quality.When it rains, water travels across hard surfaces like roads and parking Watershed Rules that would be reasonable to implement, consistent with lots carrying street pollution directly to requirements of neighboring Ramsey lakes and streams via storm drains. On Washington Metro construction sites, the Watershed District, and biggest pollution culprit that would ultimately is sediment…dirt.

Impervious surfaces: protect our surface Sediment pollution Land cover that does waters.The Watershed clouds water and prevents not allow water to Rules went into effect on light from penetrating to October 1, 2006. infiltrate: streets, sideunderwater plants. It may also smother bottomwalks, roofs, driveways To carry out the dwelling plants, a food Watershed Rules, the and parking lots. source for aquatic life.

District created a Toxic materials may also

Permitting Program which requires developers to obtain a permit for projects larger than one acre, and provides inspection and enforcement of the permit requirements. CRWD Permitting Coordinator Forrest Kelley says, “Around 90% of our sites are in compliance at any given time. Once contractors are reminded how erosion and sediment control relate to water quality, most of them are willing to maintain the BMPs [best management practices] on their sites to stay in compliance.Without enforcement, however, erosion control is often overlooked.”

When a developer applies for a permit, Kelley reviews the proposal and assists in interpreting the District Watershed Rules.

After the permit is approved by the CRWD Board of Managers, routine inspections are conducted to make sure erosion controls are maintained.

Protect continued on back page

Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 • St. Paul, MN 55108 • 651-644-8888 • www.capitolregionwd.org

Board of Managers: Robert P. Piram, President; Joe Collins; Marylyn Deneen; Mike Thienes; Seitu Jones Staff: Mark Doneux, Administrator; Bob Fossum, Water Resource Specialist; Katie Huser, Water Resource Technician; Forrest Kelley, Permit Coordinator; John Mason, Water Resource Technician; Dawn Nelson, Administrative Assistant; Melissa Baker, Water Resource Technician; Elizabeth Storey, Education & Outreach Coordinator

Established in 1998, the Capitol Region Watershed District covers 40 square miles and includes portions of the cities of Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Maplewood, Roseville and St. Paul. Located within Ramsey County, it has a population of 245,000 people. The district drains to The Mississippi River, also its primary water resource. Como Lake, Crosby Lake, Loeb Lake and Lake McCarrons are also located in the District.

Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 St. Paul, MN 55108 • 651-644-8888 • www.capitolregionwd.org

When It Rains It Pours his spring about thirty Capitol Region residents who filled out an interest card as part of the Eco Experience at the 2006 Minnesota State Fair were invited to take home a new rain barrel, compliments of CRWD.

T

When a Each time the storm dumps one CRWD rain barrels inch of rain, fill up, more than it produces 2000 gallons of about 600 gallons of stormwater gets runoff from rerouted for reuse a roof suron folks’ property. face of 1,000 sq. ft.

Imagine the number of rooftops in your community and you can see how much rainfall is headed toward storm drains each time it rains, picking up street pollutants along the way. Storm drains connect directly to our lakes and rivers, and rain barrels are one way of reducing environmental impact by trapping some of this runoff.

For example, each time the CRWD rain barrels fill up, more than 2000 gallons of stormwater gets re-routed for reuse on folks’ property.

Eric Beckman of St. Paul harvests rainwater using one of the 75-gallon recycled plastic barrels. He made a cut to his

Above: Roof runoff is directed into the barrel using a downspout extension.

Right: You can’t drink from a rain barrel, but it’s safe for flower gardens and turfgrass.

gutter with a hacksaw and inserted a downspout elbow to direct roof runoff into the barrel. A screened lid prevents small animals from entering, reduces the accumulation of organic matter, and prevents the barrel from becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “Every time it rains, there’s 75 gallons that won’t make its way to the sidewalk, and eventually the street. Plus, plants love nonchlorinated water,” says Beckman. He uses the rainwater on his gardens, and also to wet his compost pile.

CRWD is no longer giving away rain barrels, but for a comprehensive booklet of information about rain barrels and where to buy them, visit www.capitolregionwd.org and click Education & Outreach.

2 Capitol Region Watershed District Fall 2007

What’s In the Water?

Department of Health issues fish advisory for Como Lake n April, a perfluorochemical (PFC) called perfluorooctane sulfate (PFOS) Fish in Como Lake were sampled last spring was found in bluegill tissue in using an electro-shocking boat.

Minneapolis’ Lake Calhoun.As a result of this discovery, the Minnesota Department store the city of St. Paul’s municipal water. of Health announced a bluegill consumption advisory for Lake Calhoun, and The May sampling results are part of a Minnesota’s Department of Natural broader PFOS study that will examine at Resources and Pollution Control Agency least 20 lakes in the west metro later this developed a sampling plan to see if other year.“As we get more fish from more metro lake fish were contaminated. In May, lakes, we're hoping to see some patterns fish in other lakes and track down the causincluding Como, Phalen es,” said Paul Hoff, who The advisory for Como and Gervais were samsupervises the study for Lake fish urges no more pled using an electrothe Minnesota Pollution shocking boat and tested than one meal per week of Control Agency.“The for PFOS. The results of Northern Pike and Black source of the chemical in this sampling resulted in these lakes isn’t known Crappie of any size. For a fish advisory for Como yet.” For more informamore information about Lake, and the chain of tion, visit the state Minnesota’s lakes, visit the lakes including Phalen, Pollution Control Agency Gervais, Gervais Mill at www.pca.state.mn.us DNR’s Lake Finder at Pond, Round, Keller, and click PFCs under the www.dnr.state.mn.us/ Kohlman and Spoon. heading Environmental lakefind/index.html.

These lakes are not in Focus. the chain of lakes that

I

When St. Paul Public Works was faced with the unfortunate task of removing mature trees to install a 42” pipe at the corner of Hamline Avenue & Midway Parkway, CRWD suggested a raingarden on top of the city’s construction. The resulting garden is filled with shrubs and perennials and receives waters from a 10-acre drainage area.

Check out the gardens:

Raingardens Looking Good a Year Later

h Frankson & Albert h Hamline & Midway Parkway h Frankson & Asbury (2 gardens)

he raingardens that were part of a project receiving an award from Mayor Coleman were in their full summer glory this August.

T

As part of the Arlington Pascal Stormwater Improvement Project, Capitol Region Watershed District and St. Paul Department of Public Works constructed eight raingardens in a subwatershed of Como Lake. Several raingardens are redesigned road intersections which also contribute to traffic calming.

The gardens contribute to water quality improvement as well as control rate and

volume by receiving the first, most polluted flush from a rain event. If the garden overflows it will drain to the standard storm drain system. Raingardens are also a neighborhood amenity, contributing beauty, wildlife interest and opportunity for education in District 10, an area known as St. Paul’s “Garden District.”The collective gardens are approximately an acre in size, and retain a volume of roughly 24,000 cubic feet of stormwater.

h McKinley & Pascal (3 gardens) h McKinley & Arlington Above: McKinley & Pascal. Deeply-rooted plants in raingardens loosen soil and help water to soak into the ground.

Below: Frankson & Albert. Several of the gardens are redesigned road intersections.

CRWD staff member Rachel Olmanson takes care of garden maintenance.

Fall 2007 Capitol Region Watershed District 3

Board of Managers: Robert P. Piram, President; Joe Collins; Marylyn Deneen; Mike Thienes; Seitu Jones Staff: Mark Doneux, Administrator; Bob Fossum, Water Resource Specialist; Katie Huser, Water Resource Technician; Forrest Kelley, Permit Coordinator; John Mason, Water Resource Technician; Dawn Nelson, Administrative Assistant; Melissa Baker, Water Resource Technician; Elizabeth Storey, Education & Outreach Coordinator

Established in 1998, the Capitol Region Watershed District covers 40 square miles and includes portions of the cities of Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Maplewood, Roseville and St. Paul. Located within Ramsey County, it has a population of 245,000 people. The district drains to The Mississippi River, also its primary water resource. Como Lake, Crosby Lake, Loeb Lake and Lake McCarrons are also located in the District.

Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 St. Paul, MN 55108 • 651-644-8888 • www.capitolregionwd.org

When It Rains It Pours his spring about thirty Capitol Region residents who filled out an interest card as part of the Eco Experience at the 2006 Minnesota State Fair were invited to take home a new rain barrel, compliments of CRWD.

T

When a Each time the storm dumps one CRWD rain barrels inch of rain, fill up, more than it produces 2000 gallons of about 600 gallons of stormwater gets runoff from rerouted for reuse a roof suron folks’ property. face of 1,000 sq. ft.

Imagine the number of rooftops in your community and you can see how much rainfall is headed toward storm drains each time it rains, picking up street pollutants along the way. Storm drains connect directly to our lakes and rivers, and rain barrels are one way of reducing environmental impact by trapping some of this runoff.

For example, each time the CRWD rain barrels fill up, more than 2000 gallons of stormwater gets re-routed for reuse on folks’ property.

Eric Beckman of St. Paul harvests rainwater using one of the 75-gallon recycled plastic barrels. He made a cut to his

Above: Roof runoff is directed into the barrel using a downspout extension.

Right: You can’t drink from a rain barrel, but it’s safe for flower gardens and turfgrass.

gutter with a hacksaw and inserted a downspout elbow to direct roof runoff into the barrel. A screened lid prevents small animals from entering, reduces the accumulation of organic matter, and prevents the barrel from becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “Every time it rains, there’s 75 gallons that won’t make its way to the sidewalk, and eventually the street. Plus, plants love nonchlorinated water,” says Beckman. He uses the rainwater on his gardens, and also to wet his compost pile.

CRWD is no longer giving away rain barrels, but for a comprehensive booklet of information about rain barrels and where to buy them, visit www.capitolregionwd.org and click Education & Outreach.

2 Capitol Region Watershed District Fall 2007

What’s In the Water?

Department of Health issues fish advisory for Como Lake n April, a perfluorochemical (PFC) called perfluorooctane sulfate (PFOS) Fish in Como Lake were sampled last spring was found in bluegill tissue in using an electro-shocking boat.

Minneapolis’ Lake Calhoun.As a result of this discovery, the Minnesota Department store the city of St. Paul’s municipal water. of Health announced a bluegill consumption advisory for Lake Calhoun, and The May sampling results are part of a Minnesota’s Department of Natural broader PFOS study that will examine at Resources and Pollution Control Agency least 20 lakes in the west metro later this developed a sampling plan to see if other year.“As we get more fish from more metro lake fish were contaminated. In May, lakes, we're hoping to see some patterns fish in other lakes and track down the causincluding Como, Phalen es,” said Paul Hoff, who The advisory for Como and Gervais were samsupervises the study for Lake fish urges no more pled using an electrothe Minnesota Pollution shocking boat and tested than one meal per week of Control Agency.“The for PFOS. The results of Northern Pike and Black source of the chemical in this sampling resulted in these lakes isn’t known Crappie of any size. For a fish advisory for Como yet.” For more informamore information about Lake, and the chain of tion, visit the state Minnesota’s lakes, visit the lakes including Phalen, Pollution Control Agency Gervais, Gervais Mill at www.pca.state.mn.us DNR’s Lake Finder at Pond, Round, Keller, and click PFCs under the www.dnr.state.mn.us/ Kohlman and Spoon. heading Environmental lakefind/index.html.

These lakes are not in Focus. the chain of lakes that

I

When St. Paul Public Works was faced with the unfortunate task of removing mature trees to install a 42” pipe at the corner of Hamline Avenue & Midway Parkway, CRWD suggested a raingarden on top of the city’s construction. The resulting garden is filled with shrubs and perennials and receives waters from a 10-acre drainage area.

Check out the gardens:

Raingardens Looking Good a Year Later

h Frankson & Albert h Hamline & Midway Parkway h Frankson & Asbury (2 gardens)

he raingardens that were part of a project receiving an award from Mayor Coleman were in their full summer glory this August.

T

As part of the Arlington Pascal Stormwater Improvement Project, Capitol Region Watershed District and St. Paul Department of Public Works constructed eight raingardens in a subwatershed of Como Lake. Several raingardens are redesigned road intersections which also contribute to traffic calming.

The gardens contribute to water quality improvement as well as control rate and

volume by receiving the first, most polluted flush from a rain event. If the garden overflows it will drain to the standard storm drain system. Raingardens are also a neighborhood amenity, contributing beauty, wildlife interest and opportunity for education in District 10, an area known as St. Paul’s “Garden District.”The collective gardens are approximately an acre in size, and retain a volume of roughly 24,000 cubic feet of stormwater.

h McKinley & Pascal (3 gardens) h McKinley & Arlington Above: McKinley & Pascal. Deeply-rooted plants in raingardens loosen soil and help water to soak into the ground.

Below: Frankson & Albert. Several of the gardens are redesigned road intersections.

CRWD staff member Rachel Olmanson takes care of garden maintenance.

Fall 2007 Capitol Region Watershed District 3

Our mission is to protect, manage and improve the water resources of the Capitol Region Watershed District.

1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 St. Paul, MN 55108

INSIDE

651-644-8888 651-644-8894 fax

2 When It Rains It Pours 3 Raingardens Looking Good

www.capitolregionwd.org

3 What’s in the Water?

4 Greening Your Garage

Capitol Region Watershed District Fall 2007

CRWD Watershed Rules: A Requirement to Protect n urban areas like the cities within Capitol Region Watershed District, there is significant development and redevelopment of land: the creation of condominiums, retail stores, municipal buildings and parking lots creates a constant buzz of construction throughout the District.

I

Greening Your Garage A Green Roof workshop hosted by Capitol Region Watershed District and Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District

Monday, October 15, 6:30-8:30 pm Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, # 4, St. Paul

What’s a green roof?

The term “green roof” refers to a vegetated roof cover made up of living plants, a growing medium, a drainage layer and a waterproofing membrane. Green roofs provide retention, filtration, cooling and volume reduction of stormwater. Green roofs also minimize impervious land coverage and extend the life of the roof.

For more information about green roofs, visit Minnesota Green Roofs Council at http://www.mngreenroofs.org.

Workshop is free of charge.

Pre-registration is required.

Contact Elizabeth at 651-644-8888 or elizabeth@capitolregionwd.org.

This workshop is presented by RoofBloom, a resource for homeowners interested in having a green roof on their garage, porch, shed or other small outbuilding.You’ll learn all about small green roofs - their benefits and design considerations, and how to install and maintain your own.

RoofBloom is a collaboration of Minnesota Green Roofs Council, Cermak Rhoades Architects and Emmons and Olivier Resources.

Protect continued from front page

Kelley also inspects sites to ensure that stormwater management devices are properly installed. Once a project is complete, a final inspection is conducted and the stormwater management devices are cleaned out before the permit is closed, followed by annual inspections to ensure the owner is maintaining the system to function as designed.

In 2003,The Center for Watershed Protection in Washington D.C. showed that when an area is more than 25% paved, the water bodies in that watershed are severely degraded – water quality is significantly diminished and habitat condition is poor.With more than 40% impervious cover in the Capitol Region Watershed District, our lakes and streams need all the protection we can provide.

Enforcement of the Watershed Rules is an important first step in that direction.

To view the CRWD Watershed Rules, visit http://www.capitolregionwd.org.

Water quality is directly related to how we use land. So to protect water quality, CRWD adopted Watershed Rules in 2006 to address both short- and longterm stormwater management needs.The Rules require land developers to control runoff pollution from construction sites by protecting areas susceptible to erosion and sediment loss. Equally important is that The Rules require development projects to use permanent controls for postconstruction stormwater management through a variety of technologies.

“Swirl separators” like this one are permanent BMPs that treat stormwater on site. This device allows sediment to settle out of stormwater before it enters the storm drain system.

The Permitting Program ensures both short-term and long-term stormwater management.

be present in sediment, further contaminating waterways. Sediment is also a source of nutrient pollution since phosphorus adheres to soil particles. Excess nutrients lead to algae overgrowth which depletes oxygen.

Requirement to Protect

A Dirty Problem

With the long-term health of our watershed at stake, the District set out to Polluted runoff is a serious threat to develop and adopt science-based water quality.When it rains, water travels across hard surfaces like roads and parking Watershed Rules that would be reasonable to implement, consistent with lots carrying street pollution directly to requirements of neighboring Ramsey lakes and streams via storm drains. On Washington Metro construction sites, the Watershed District, and biggest pollution culprit that would ultimately is sediment…dirt.

Impervious surfaces: protect our surface Sediment pollution Land cover that does waters.The Watershed clouds water and prevents not allow water to Rules went into effect on light from penetrating to October 1, 2006. infiltrate: streets, sideunderwater plants. It may also smother bottomwalks, roofs, driveways To carry out the dwelling plants, a food Watershed Rules, the and parking lots. source for aquatic life.

District created a Toxic materials may also

Permitting Program which requires developers to obtain a permit for projects larger than one acre, and provides inspection and enforcement of the permit requirements. CRWD Permitting Coordinator Forrest Kelley says, “Around 90% of our sites are in compliance at any given time. Once contractors are reminded how erosion and sediment control relate to water quality, most of them are willing to maintain the BMPs [best management practices] on their sites to stay in compliance.Without enforcement, however, erosion control is often overlooked.”

When a developer applies for a permit, Kelley reviews the proposal and assists in interpreting the District Watershed Rules.

After the permit is approved by the CRWD Board of Managers, routine inspections are conducted to make sure erosion controls are maintained.

Protect continued on back page

Capitol Region Watershed District 1410 Energy Park Drive, Suite 4 • St. Paul, MN 55108 • 651-644-8888 • www.capitolregionwd.org