Coon Creek Watershed District project links stormwater, habitat…

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2023 June Snapshots Subscribe to Snapshots Coon Creek Watershed District links habitat, stormwater work C Clean Water Funds from BWSR backed three Coon Creekrelated projects: $376,090, 2019; CCWD and Coon Rapids; biocharand iron-enhanced sand filter to treat a tributary's runoff. Annual reduction estimates (ARE): 80% E. coli; 69 pounds phosphorus. $395,000, 2020; 1.1mile Coon Creek Park stream restoration, Andover. ARE: 237 tons sediment, 201 pounds phosphorus. $345,000, 2022; CCWD and Coon Rapids; biocharand iron-enhanced sand filter to treat a tributary's runoff. ARE: 23 pounds phosphorus, 404 billion organisms. OON RAPIDS — On a stream that carries stormwater runoff from a densely populated suburb, the Coon Creek Watershed District (CCWD) overcame constraints of its urban setting to improve habitat, reduce the likelihood of flash flooding, and curb pollution bound for the Mississippi River. dissolved phosphorus and bacteria. The two-phase, $1.3 million Sand Creek restoration project leveraged $577,930 in Clean Water Funds from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), and $560,540 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funding through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. Work focused on a 1.2-mile-long stretch. Sand Creek starts in Blaine as a series of stormwater ditches, and flows 8.3 miles to Coon Creek, a Mississippi River tributary. The downstream 2.2 miles function as a stream. The rest, bordered by hundreds of private properties, functions as a ditch. “When we work to address our aquatic life impairments in these urban streams, it’s really twofold. The heavy anthropogenic impact on the land has led to in-stream factors: poor habitat, straightened channels, a lot flashier water, altered hydrology,” said Justine Dauphinais, CCWD water quality coordinator. “Also, you have to deal with all of the regulated urban stormwater that is washing off the landscape into the creek — and the quality of that water itself.” As space, partnerships and funding allow, the CCWD pairs in-stream restoration and bank stabilization to reduce sedimentloading with best management practices to reduce peak flows and filter out Annual reduction estimates show the Sand Creek project, which finished in 2021, will curb sediment-loading by 468 tons and cut phosphorus by 420 pounds. One pound of phosphorus can feed 500 pounds of algae. The Sand Creek work set the stage for projects on Coon Creek.