2013 - Winter

Seasons

Winter 2013/2014

The Greening of Maplewood

Who’s Watching After Our Stormwater?

By Steve Love, Assistant City Engineer

If you drive along Highway 36 in Maplewood, you have noticed the major road improvements that took place between Highway 61 and Hazelwood Street over the summer. The project removed the stop light at Highway 36 and English Street and replaced it with a full access diamond interchange. It also included the replacement of the Vento Trail pedestrian bridge over the highway. These improvements will have a noticeable impact on traffic flow and pedestrian access in the area. But did you know that the project will also have a positive impact on the environment and the quality of stormwater runoff?

The Highway 36 project area totaled approximately 41 acres, but drainage from another 730 acres flows into, through, or out of the area. Stormwater runoff from this area drains to Keller Lake, which is one of 11 impaired water bodies in Maplewood. The Federal Clean Water Act requires states to

adopt water quality standards to protect water bodies from pollution. The standards define how much of a pollutant (such as phosphorus or trace metals) can be in the water and still meet designated uses (such as drinking water, fishing, and swimming). It is currently estimated that 40% of Minnesota’s lakes and streams are impaired. In 2014 Keller Lake, along with Beaver Lake, Battle Creek, and Carver Lake will be removed from the City’s impaired water list due to corrective water quality actions taken by various agencies.

Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) monitors most water bodies in Maplewood. With each new street project RWMWD works with the City to implement projects that will improve water quality. As part of the Highway 36 project, RWMWD partnered with Maplewood to construct five filtration basins within the area to help treat stormwater runoff. The basins were designed with the capacity to treat seven times more stormwater runoff than required. This was done to provide water quality improvements to Keller Lake. Other techniques used on the project help prevent

erosion and keep sediment from washing downstream including filtration basins, bioretention logs, storm sewer inlet protection, and erosion control blankets.

The strategies agencies use to maintain roads and other public land have an impact on the environment and stormwater runoff as well. Maplewood practices sustainable City operations, which means the City plans and carries out day-to-day work in a manner that minimizes impacts to, or improves the environment. This includes practices such as spring and fall street sweepings, reduction of salt in snow plowing, installing rain gardens on all road projects, and reducing the amount of mowed grass in parks and on City land.

Watching after our stormwater is not just up to agencies. There are numerous ways that residents and businesses can help reduce the impacts of stormwater to our lakes and wetlands. The articles in this issue offer many suggestions.

Construction Techniques Used to Improve Stormwater Quality

Filtration Basin

Bioretention Log

Storm Sewer Inlet Protection

Erosion Control Blankets

Keeping Rain Water in the Yard

By Jan Hayman, Naturalist What we do in our yards has significant impacts in our neighborhoods and beyond. Any rain water runoff that flows down driveways into the street potentially carries phosphorus from leaves, fertilizer, chemicals, and other materials that pollute area lakes, streams, and wetlands. Here are some best management practices you can do at home to minimize runoff and reduce stormwater pollution in local water bodies: Keep hard surfaces free of phosphorous and other pollutants.

• Sweep, rake, or pick up spilled fertilizer, chemicals, pet waste, leaves, and grass clippings.

• Direct mowers and fertilizer spreaders away from streets, driveways, and sidewalks.

• Bag leaves or shred with mower as mulch for shrub beds.

Put rain water to work in the yard.

• Direct gutters so they water the lawn or garden, rather than running

down the driveway.

• Install a rain garden to capture and infiltrate stormwater from your roof or driveway.

• Install rain barrels to store water for use in the garden.

• If your street in Maplewood is being reconstructed, volunteer to have a boulevard rain garden.

Grow a healthy lawn that absorbs rain water.

• Aerate the lawn for healthy roots and better infiltration.

• Raise your mower blade to 3 inches (taller blades = deeper healthier roots).

• Use a mulching mower and leave clippings on lawn, to reduce the amount of fertilizing.

Plant to infiltrate.

• Use deep-rooted native plants wherever possible.

• Plant a shade tree for cleaner air and water.

Adopt a storm drain.

• Keep the storm drain in your neighborhood free of leaves, grass clippings, and trash.

Be a stormwater watcher.

• Watch for pollutants that might enter a storm Adopt A Storm Drain drain or ditch. These illicit discharges include motor oil poured down a storm drain, a failing septic system, or improper disposal of sewage from recreational practices. To report an illicit discharge, contact the Public Works Department at 651.249.2400.

Cost Share Grants

Our local watershed districts all offer cost share grants to homeowners and businesses to help them install rain gardens or other practices that reduce stormwater pollution. To find out which district you live in and the terms of the grants, check the district websites below.

Ramsey-Washington Metro: www.rwmwd.org (covers most of Maplewood) Valley Branch: www.vbwd.org (covers Joy Park area) Capital Region: www.capitolregionwd.org (covers parts of western Maplewood) Seasons 2

Resident Spotlight: Retrofitted Rain Garden

By Shann Finwall, Environmental Planner Matt Ledvina and his family live in south Maplewood.

When they moved into their house, the yard was all grass.

Ledvina’s Front Yard Before Slowly Matt the Rain Garden replaced the grass with native plantings. A majority of the runoff from his house is directed through French drains into planting beds. His 24,000 square foot lot now has 3,000 square feet of grass which reduces maintenance and water use, and helps improve the quality of stormwater runoff.

In 2012, Matt installed a large rain garden in the front yard.

The rain garden is 300 square feet in area and is designed to accept and Retrofitted Rain Garden infiltrate stormwater from the street. It includes a boulder retaining wall, a curb cut to allow stormwater to run off the street into the garden, and 89 native plants to help filter and clean the stormwater runoff.

To help fund the project, Matt applied for a cost share grant with Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District. The grant covered $2,500 of the project costs and allowed Matt to work closely with watershed district staff on the rain garden design. The rain garden also qualified Matt for a 30% reduction in environmental utility fee (EUF) costs. The EUF is a quarterly fee charged by the City to cover the impacts a property has on the overall drainage system.

When asked why he took on such a large project, Matt said he was looking for ways his family could continue to reduce the environmental impacts of their home.

Using a small piece of his land to improve stormwater runoff from the street seemed like an innovative way to do that. Plus, Matt states, “It helps cut down on the time it takes to mow my front lawn!”

The Evolution of Maplewood’s Rain Garden Program

By Ginny Gaynor, Natural Resources Coordinator

When Maplewood built its first rain gardens in 1996, the City had no idea that rain gardens would one day be a routine part of stormwater management. Today Maplewood has over 700 home rain gardens and over 60 City rain gardens! The rain garden concept is simple: collect rain water runoff in a shallow, planted depression, and allow it to infiltrate on site. By infiltrating rain water on site, less stormwater and fewer pollutants will enter our local lakes, streams, and wetlands.

Maplewood’s rain garden story began when the City and two partners, Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District and the University of Minnesota, were awarded a grant for the Birmingham Street Pilot Project – a two-block street reconstruction project incorporating 10 home rain gardens and a City rain garden.

Since that first project, rain gardens have been a part of the stormwater management design on nearly all our street reconstruction projects.

In the early years, City contractors constructed the rain gardens and the City provided plants, planting plans, and support on planting day. Residents were responsible for planting and maintaining their gardens. We found out there were still a few kinks to work through - the soil was too heavy, the plants were too small, false sunflowers were too aggressive, the mulch floated! With each new street project, the City learned and adjusted. As Maplewood’s rain garden program grew, communities throughout the metro and nationwide began constructing rain gardens, driven in part by new stormwater regulations. Engineers, landscapers, and contractors began experimenting with soil mixes, planting designs, inlet structures, and installation methods.

Clean Streets = Green Streets

By Shann Finwall, Environmental Planner The first mechanical street sweeper was invented in 1849. It consisted of rotating disks covered with wire bristles that swept the dirt on the streets. In the 1970s, street sweepers were improved to remove small and large particles including leaves, sediment, debris, trash, and trace metals. Street sweeping is now an effective way to reduce pollutants in stormwater runoff.

Fall Street Sweeping

Maplewood conducts spring and fall street sweepings

Maplewood’s rain garden program continues to evolve. In recent years, we’ve incorporated curb cuts, retaining walls, and simplified the planting designs. In 2010, the City began having contractors plant the gardens and maintain them for one year.

With contractors planting the gardens, Maplewood staff has been able to shift their efforts to provide more educational support for maintenance of the gardens. Each year, City naturalists offer garden consultations for existing rain gardens, and provide group demonstrations and programs to teach people how to maintain and enhance their rain gardens.

Bartelmy Street Project Planted 2001 Maplewood salutes all the residents and businesses that have rain gardens on their property!

Hills and Dale Street Project Planted 2010

on all City streets. Spring sweeping is necessary to remove winter de-icing materials and other road debris prior to spring rainfalls.

Fall sweeping collects leaves and other materials from the streets.

Summer sweeping takes place during maintenance operations, in areas with erosion problems, after heavy rainfall events, and after high winds or storms. With our street sweeping operations, Maplewood prevented 1,458 tons of debris from entering the storm sewer systems and water bodies in 2012.

Bryan Nagel, Street Superintendent, explains that the City is reviewing new ways to deal with street sweeping debris. A permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency allowed the City to use the street sweepings to cover an old municipal dump site.

That site has been completely covered and restored. The City now screens street sweepings mechanically to separate trash and large debris from the finer particles. Once screened, the material is considered safe and acceptable for reuse in street projects. Trash and large debris left over after screening must be disposed of at a permitted solid waste facility.

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Watershed Watchers Enters the Era of Living Streets

By Ginny Gaynor, Natural Resources Coordinator When Maplewood installed its first rain gardens in the late 1990s, the Nature Center signed on as an enthusiastic partner. The 1999 street reconstruction project, just north of the Nature Center, included two rain gardens on City land.

Transfiguration School was just up the street, so Nature Center staff invited the students to help plant the rain gardens. Four hundred shrubs and lots of muddy knees later, the City’s Watershed Watchers Service Learning Program was born.

Each year since then school children have planted a large City rain garden through Watershed Watchers. As part of the program our naturalists teach students about pollution from stormwater runoff.

This past spring, Watershed Watcher volunteers planted a new rain garden at the Nature Center.

The streets to the south and west of the Nature Center were reconstructed in 2012 as part of the Bartelmy-Meyer Living Streets Project. A rain garden was created at the southwest entrance of the Nature Center to capture street runoff. It included a rock “weeper” to help slow

We’re Splish and Splash!

We’re rain drops.

stormwater inflow from Union Cemetery. In June, fifth graders from Oakdale Elementary and seniors from Woodbury High School planted 15 trees, 100 shrubs, and dozens of ferns, sedges, and wildflowers.

The next time you visit the Nature Center, take a detour through the Living Streets project.

Living Streets design considers the needs of nature and people in addition to traffic. It preserves the important function of traffic, parking, and underground utilities, while enhancing walking and bicycling. Boulevard trees are planted or preserved. Did you know that one large tree can capture up to 5,000 gallons of water a year? Other stormwater management best practices such as rain gardens and reduced street widths are incorporated into the design.

To enhance aesthetics beautiful ripples were engraved in the sidewalks. These changes enhance our streets in ways that feel more livable and are good for the environment.

Watershed Watchers Learning about Water Quality

Kids Planting Rain Garden

Living Streets Design

Help us get to Lake Phalen.

Steer clear of the icky stuff that wants to ride along to the lake!

By Oakley Biesanz, Naturalist You made it!

Way to keep the lake clean.

Printed on 50% post-consumer recycled paper

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