02-07-1996 Meeting•
In attendance:
NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
(FEBRUARY 7, 1996)
- Meeting Summary-
Lee Markell, APRNRC
Steve Thompson, APRNRC
John Barten, Hennepin Co. Parks
Paul Olson, Staff
Rich Brasch, Staff
Meeting Summary:
I. Water Quality Management Program Review
John Barten, water quality manager with Hennepin County
Parks, was invited to the meeting to provide his
perspectives on the water quality management program.
John was heavily involved in the development of the
technical aspects of the plan and program, and works
extensively with other communities in his capacity as
water quality manager for Hennepin Parks. Following is
a summary of John's remarks:
His main expectation for the program over the first
5 years was simply to prevent further degradation
in the community's priority water bodies. He had
no expectations of dramatic improvements in water
quality during the first 5 -10 years of the program.
John emphasized the long -term nature of lake
restoration, citing his experience with the City of
Wauseca and the 9 -10 year effort required to
successfully rehabilitate two lakes in the town.
In John's opinion, managing urban lakes is like
managing urban parks. Both are highly altered
systems that take intensive management in order to
achieve the level of quality necessary to satisfy
the demands they are expected to fulfill. In his
experience, the public will not accept poor water
quality for very long so the commitment needs to
made for water as it does for parks. In addition,
it is important to take a very long view of the
actual and potential value of the resource. Steps
taken to protect lakes today may will have benefits
to the public 50 -100 yrs in the future. He
believes these resources will only come to be
• valued more highly by the public as time
progresses.
•
II. Wetland Buffer Ordinance
From what he knows about the program, its major
success has been the implementation of the public
education component of the program. The major
weakness may be the lack of an ordinance
restricting the amount of phosphorus in fertilizer.
John believes that while education is important and
desirable, it is unrealistic to expect that it will
substantially change behavior over even the
intermediate term, and that education efforts need
to be combined with regulatory tools to have an
impact.
There was some discussion regarding the strategies
that could be employed to develop facilities to
support direct contact recreation on City lakes and
ponds. John mentioned his experience with beach
curtains, pumping /re- circulation of shallow
groundwater, and alum treatments in maintaining
swimming areas for Hennepin Parks. He mentioned
costs for a beach curtain sufficient to enclose 1
acre at about $12,000 and that it required about
16 -20 man -hours to install the curtains.
The subcommittee members mentioned that it might be
desirable to look at the feasibility of developing direct
contact recreation facilities on a number of community
lakes and ponds, including Heine Pond, Carlson Lake,
Schwanz Lake, Fish Lake, and Blackhawk Lake.
A codified version of the draft wetland ordinance
discussed at the last meeting was distributed as was a
model wetland buffer ordinance based on one adopted
within the last year by the City of Maplewood. (Note: L.
Markell needed to leave meeting at this point due to
scheduling conflict)
Staff reviewed application of the Subcommittee's draft
ordinance to four developments and discussed the
administrative issues that arose and the need for
possible exemption and variance provisions to provide
flexibility in the application of the ordinance. Staff
were directed to incorporate several exemption, variance,
and easement provisions from the model ordinance into the
Subcommittee draft. Another meeting of the subcommittee
was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 20 to
review the revised draft.
(Meeting summary prepared 2/8/96 by R. Brasch)