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Dear ZWP Members,

Over the last several months ZWP Planning Coordinator Norman Senjem has been working on a sediment reduction plan for the Zumbro River Watershed. This is an implementation plan funded by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to satisfy the requirements of the Zumbro turbidity Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study completed last year. Norman has held three public stakeholder meetings and also sought the input of ZWP’s technical partners in reviewing preliminary drafts of the plan. Using feedback from these meetings and partners, he has updated the plan to its most recent version. He would like to let you know that the Draft Plan is now posted on our website (http://www.zumbrowatershed.org/projects/active) for a final public review. Please take a moment to review the plan and provide comments by Tuesday, May 29th. Comments provided will be incorporated into a final draft which will then be routed to MPCA for approval.

After this plan is finalized, Norman will be turning his attention to developing the larger, comprehensive watershed management plan for the Zumbro.

Please let Norman or I know if you have any questions.

Thanks again for your help!

Lisa

Here is the press release announcing our 2012 rain garden grants:

Now Accepting Realize Raingardens Rochester Grant Applications

In 2009, the City of Rochester launched Realize Raingardens Rochester - a cost-share grant program promoting the installation of residential raingardens in Rochester.  A task force of interested citizens and the City’s Public Works staff developed this program.  Selected sites are used to demonstrate how raingardens slow, treat, and infiltrate storm water, while adding beauty to neighborhoods and creating habitat for songbirds and butterflies.   Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a link to an article that mentions a technology that we may use in urban areas.

Urban Trees

Those benefits, including reduced energy costs and better storm-water control, have been shown to march in lockstep with the size of trees.

“We tell municipalities that trees are as much a part of their infrastructure as the gas line, the sidewalk and the light pole,” says Mr. James, who is based in Vancouver. “And as such they belong not just to the arborist, but to the roads engineer, the streets engineer and the storm-water engineer.”

DeepRoot was founded in the United States in the 1970s with one product, a root barrier system that forces roots to grow down, not out, lessening the possibility of tree roots buckling pavement and sidewalks.

Over time, working with American landscape architect James Urban, the company developed the Silva Cell, a system designed to help nurture big trees in urban environments based on research that shows larger trees provide exponentially greater benefits than smaller ones. A 2010 report for the City of Toronto, for example, found a tree that’s 75 centimetres in diameter intercepts 10 times more air pollution, stores up to 90 times more carbon and contributes up to 100 times more leaf area to the city’s canopy than a 15-centimetre tree.

I pressed for an update on the erosion in Kutzky Park.  Here is a note from Gary Nuemann. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, I am opposed to huge river dead zones so I am heartened by another story of responsible development.

Philadelphia Storm Water Plans Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a USGS report on the September 2010 Sothern Minnesota flooding by Christopher A. Ellison, Chris A. Sanocki, David L. Lorenz, Gregory B. Mitton, and Gregory A. Kruse. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a way that we can plant trees in dense areas and actually get them to live.  Ideally, we would always have enough space to support our boulevard trees.  However there are some places where we wish to have trees (everywhere in my case) where they don’t do so well.  I really don’t see the upside of planting trees only to see them flounder and die. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a very nice piece of work that was done for the City of North St. Paul.  This report even mentions Rochester’s complete streets policy.  The idea here is that integrate stormwater infiltration can be beautiful and effective. Read the rest of this entry »

Raingardens are one of the most cost effective, beautiful, and effective ways to clean our stormwater.  I am planning on designing one for my home.

In 2009, the City of Rochester launched Realize Raingardens Rochester – a cost-share grant program promoting the installation of residential raingardens in Rochester. A task force of interested citizens and the City’s Public Works staff developed this program. Selected sites are used to demonstrate how raingardens slow, treat, and infiltrate storm water, while adding beauty to neighborhoods and creating habitat for songbirds and butterflies.

Rain Gardens

Citizens who want to make a difference in their neighborhoods while protecting water quality are invited to participate in the City of Rochester’s new Adopt-A-Storm-Water-Pond program.  There are over 100 storm water management ponds in Rochester that can be adopted by interested groups, businesses, and individuals.

Interested volunteers should contact Mike Kraszewski (mkraszewski@rochestermn.gov or 328-2431) to inquire about adoptable locations.

Press Release