Soil & Water Conservation District Guidebook 2008 - Minnesota ...

A premier waterfowl breeding and migration
sanctuary was established on a former community gardening
site in Roseville. The project, called the Woodview Marsh
Wetland Restoration (pictured), was funded through a $250,000
Wetland Road Replacement grant from the Board of Water and
Soil Resources and additional funding from the Capitol Region
Watershed District. The RCD and the Ramsey County Public
Works Department created 20 acres of new-wetland habitat
and Public Value Credit wetland habitat. Construction of a weir
and removal of 30,000 cubic yards of soil has restored wetland
hydrology on the site, and a supplemental planting established
diverse wetland plant materials.
Two rainwater gardens have been retrofi t
within existing storm sewer systems that previously
conveyed polluted storm water directly to Lake Phalen and
the Mississippi River. Both projects were completed by the
RCD in cooperation with the city of St. Paul. Urban runoff
management is the greatest challenge to protecting and
improving water quality in an urban land-use environment.
Infi ltrating stormwater runoff has proven to be a cost-effective
best management practice for surface water quality protection.
Through a joint powers agreement with
the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the RCD routinely
inspects over 250 active construction sites within Ramsey
County for compliance with permit requirements of the
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
When necessary, the RCD assists the MPCA with regulatory
enforcement and compliance. Nationwide, sediment is the
number one non-point source pollutant affecting our water
resources, and the NPDES permit program dramatically
reduces sediment runoff from construction sites. The RCD
is one of only 10 local government units that has this kind of
joint powers agreement with the MPCA.
Top 5 Natural Resource Concerns
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Groundwater quality/quantity protection
Surface water quality protection/improvement
Wetland and open space restoration/protection
Urban runoff management through lowimpact-development
BMPs
Environmental stewardship education
Future Projects
Ramsey Conservation District
Wellhead protection plans for the cities of
North St. Paul and Saint Anthony Village were developed
by RCD staff as a pilot project to implement the Ramsey
County Groundwater Quality Protection Plan. The plans will
be used by city offi cials to insure that their fi elds containing
municipal potable water wells will remain operational and
free of contamination into the future. The plans contain
an assessment of the geographic area from which the
public wells “pull” water (wellhead protection zones)
and establishes controls within theses areas to prevent the
movement of potential pollutants into water supply wells.
Crosby Bluff Restoration -- Crosby Farm Park is a large regional
park managed by the city of St. Paul. The park is located on
the north bank of the Mississippi River, bellow West 7th Street,
between the 35E and Mendota bridges. A large portion of the
park’s landscape is a very steep escarpment that has been severely
eroded/denuded by poorly managed urban runoff that has been
allowed to fl ow over the bluff. Many invasive weed species have
further destabilized the bluff. As a follow-up to the Crosby Farm
Park Bluff Stabilization/Restoration Study, commissioned by the
RCD, the RCD will partner with the City of St. Paul Parks Department
and other agencies to develop and implement construction
plans to divert stormwater away from the bluff and restore
the native plant community and the bluff to a stable condition.
Revision of the Ramsey County Groundwater Quality Protection
Plan -- With pilot funding from the Board of Water and Soil
Resources, the RCD prepared a comprehensive groundwater
quality protection plan for the citizens’ Ramsey County Board
in the early 1990s. Since this plan was adopted by the Ramsey
County Board and put into effect in late 1996, many changes have
occurred in groundwater use. Better information is now available
on past contamination sources, the extent to which contamination
has spread, and of the hydro-geologic conditions of the aquifers
beneath Ramsey County. In 2008, the RCD hopes to revise the
current plan to refl ect the changes to our groundwater system.
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