Flood study underway for Grass Lake and Snail Lake area

In response to high-water conditions around Grass Lake, Snail Lake and nearby wetlands, the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District is coordinating a large-scale flood study, currently underway. The goal is to identify strategies that will stabilize the system to withstand increasingly heavy precipitation and rebounding groundwater levels, ultimately protecting homes and property.

The District contracted with Barr Engineering this summer to begin evaluating various flood control options. Meanwhile, District staff continues to closely monitor surface water and groundwater levels to gather additional data. Below is a summary of the work completed to date.

Snail Lake

Challenge: Snail Lake is currently landlocked without a managed outlet. High water has forced closure of the swimming beach, and while homes on the lake have not been impacted to date, an extreme rain event could potentially put low-lying properties at risk for flooding.

Actions: 

• Engineers surveyed the six lowest homes on Snail Lake to help determine a feasible 100-year flood level elevation for the lake.
• The team is now evaluating options for constructing a managed outlet system that could allow water out of Snail Lake if it were to reach this maximum level.

Grass Lake

Challenge: While Grass Lake’s water level fluctuates seasonally, its annual low point has been steadily rising since 2009. During periods of heavy rain in 2016 and 2017, the lake topped its banks on the north end, flooding trails and raising the water levels of nearby ponds and wetlands.

Actions:

• Two temporary sandbag berms have been installed along the north and northeast sides of Grass Lake.
• The engineering team took soil core samples at both sites and is now working to determine the proper design and elevation for permanent earthen berms, which could be completed by March 2018.
• In late March of 2017, the outlet channel from West Vadnais Lake (downstream of Grass Lake) was cleaned to promote drainage of the system. A similar project is planned for the Grass Lake outlet channel this winter.

Vadnais-Snail Lakes Regional Park

Challenge: Flooding from Grass Lake into adjacent ponds and wetlands, accompanied by seepage from high groundwater levels, has forced closure of several county park trail sections. Wetland A (pictured above), bordering the nearby Crestview Addition neighborhood, has been especially impacted as it is the lowest elevation point of the area and has no natural outlet.

Actions:

• The District installed two new groundwater monitoring wells, which record automatic readings every 15 minutes, along with seven surface water level gauges at key points around Grass, Snail and West Vadnais lakes. Staff has taken manual on-site readings up to 3 times per week while also checking inlet/outlet pipes to ensure they are functioning as designed.
• In April, water was pumped out of Wetland A back into Grass Lake to see if this would alleviate high groundwater levels in the Crestview Addition neighborhood. Lowering the surface level of Wetland A had little effect on neighborhood groundwater. However, pumping other smaller ponds near Gramsie Road did have the desired effect of lowering groundwater and will be an important maintenance strategy in the future.
• Once a peak flood level is established for Grass Lake and Wetland A, the District will advise Ramsey County on options for restoring trail access in low-lying areas of the regional park.

The District is committed to finding long-term solutions to the flood risk in this area, including replacing/adding outlet pipes to increase drainage. However, this is a complex system with flood considerations downstream through the Phalen Chain of Lakes, so any projects designed to move water from one area to another will require further thoughtful consideration.

  

What's Going On at Grass Lake?

By Tina Carstens, District Administrator

You may be seeing a lot activity around the Grass Lake and Vadnais-Snail Lake Regional Park area and wondering what is going on. The Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (District) has contracted with Northern Dewatering to move forward with a project to help alleviate the flooding risk by lowering the higher than normal water levels in the adjacent wetlands. We will be pumping the water from the large Wetland A (see map below) back into Grass Lake where it came from. The District’s modeling suggests that this will help reduce groundwater levels around the neighborhood of concern. The Crestview Addition neighborhood has been coping with high groundwater levels, likely due to the long term high levels in those surrounding wetlands.

Northern Dewatering will be connecting over 2,000 feet of 12-inch diameter pipe and routing the pipe from the large Wetland A, through the tunnel in Gramsie Road and into Grass Lake. As of today, April 6, you will see the contractor in the area near Gramsie Road. They are first pumping the water out of that area to allow use of the pedestrian tunnel for the longer discharge pipe. The tunnel will not be open to pedestrians during the pumping effort. The berm along the north side of Grass Lake will also be improved to provide the storage needed to accept the water pumped from the Wetland A. After they pump the area around Gramsie Road and the 12” pipe is built and in place, a large (but quiet) pump will be placed in Wetland A and the pumping will begin.

To keep an eye on how the surface and groundwater levels are responding to the pumping, the District has installed two groundwater monitoring pipes in the area as well as six lake/wetland level gauges in the necessary water bodies. The District will be monitoring all the levels to assess the impact surface water pumping has on the groundwater levels as well as keeping an eye on the need to delay pumping due to weather conditions. It will ensure that there is not an increase flooding risk in and around Grass Lake. 

Water being pumped into Grass Lake

From the Grass Lake area, the water drains to West Vadnais Lake and eventually south of I-694 through a pipe and into the District’s Gervais Creek system. From there you can follow the path of the water all the way from Gervais Lake to Lake Phalen and eventually the Mississippi River! Prior to today, a small culvert on the north side of Grass Lake was blocked to stop the flow of water from there to the north and into Wetland A. Also, the District’s maintenance contractor cleaned out a channel south of West Vadnais Lake in order to open up that flow path for better drainage efficiency. District staff will continue to monitor the flow path and all potential restrictions to that flow. 

The District will be closely monitoring the system throughout the duration of this project. The modeling efforts the District has done to this point show that, in and of itself, the pumping of water from Wetland A back into Grass Lake does not negatively impact any other structures or infrastructure. That being said, we will be watching the forecasts and rain events closely. Rain events, depending on the intensity and timing, could yield further impacts to the park and roadways. Those would occur whether or not we pumped the water back into Grass Lake from the wetland, but will still need to be monitored closely. There may be times where we will need to shut the pumps off in order to not be pumping water that will find its way back into the wetland during a rain event. If all goes as planned, the pumping is expected to last 4-6 weeks.

The District is also proceeding with a large-scale modeling effort to search for potential long term solutions to the flood risk in this area, as well as looking more into the Snail Lake high water levels. More to come on that in the near future.

Please click here to see this update along with background information on this area.

Please email Tina Carstens, District Administrator, with any questions or call 651-792-7950.

A Different Perspective

Snail Lake in Shoreview

 

Hi. My name is Maddy Jackson. I just started my freshman year in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. I’ve had the good fortune to grow up on Snail Lake, and I’m sure it has contributed to my interest in Biology. I hosted a lake education session on September 15 as part of my Girl Scout Gold Award project. 


I’d like to share a little of my recent history with Snail Lake:


When I’m out on the lake with my family and it’s time to pull up the anchor, there is always one question that nobody wants to ask: Whose turn is it to pull the weeds off? None of us want to stick our hand into that brownish-green mass of goodness-knows-what. We all know it’s full of ‘weeds’ and ‘muck’ but there’s just something about those things that really grosses us out.


On a warm July day last summer, my dad had the strangest idea. He wanted to go snorkeling in Snail Lake! At first I thought he was kidding. How nasty would it be to go snorkeling in a lake that’s full of ‘weeds’ and ‘muck’? Alas, it was roasty toasty outside and I was up for a little adventure.


At first, I avoided touching the weeds as much as possible. The way they slithered on my leg was simply unpleasant. When I opened my eyes it was like I could finally see the lake for what it really was. The plants looked absolutely beautiful as they swayed back and forth with the waves. I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing the whole time. Here’s a little peek at what our lakes look like from a different perspective:

Snail Lake - What Lies Beneath

Tessa, Natural Resources Intern, checks the water
depth at each survey point.

Photo by Maddy Jackson.

Over the past few weeks, District staff had the opportunity to spend some quality time checking out the underwater plant communities on several of the lakes in the Grass Lake area. Since Maddy Jackson sent us her wonderful photos of the ‘underwater forest’ on Snail Lake, we thought we would take the opportunity to let you know about some of the interesting plants we found during our Snail Lake survey.

One of the most abundant plants we found in Snail is wild celery, (Vallisneria americana) also known as eel grass. Wild celery is a rooted aquatic plant with tape-like leaves that undulate with the waves. In the late summer this plant sends a stalk spiraling up to water’s surface, eventually producing a small creamy flower. This slippery plant is an important wildlife food source – keep your eyes peeled for scattered ‘corkscrews’ coming up from a stand of green ribbons.

A customized grid helps us hit roughly the same survey points on a lake each time we go out.  On most of our lakes, we aim to hit at least 100 points outside of the deepest areas where we don't expect to find much vegetation (the light blue areas in the above map).

Northern water nymph (Najas flexilis) is another common Snail Lake plant that is important to wildlife – ducks will eat the entire plant. This water nymph is a bushy, short-leaved plant often found in sandy areas 3 feet or more deep.


We found several of the broad-leaved pondweeds (Potamogeton amplifolius, P. illinoensis & P. richardsonii) in deeper waters. These plants are commonly called ‘muskie cabbage’ or ‘bass weed’ and the name pretty much describes their importance; they are marvelous habitat for fish

Photos by Maddy Jackson.

One thing we were happy to not see this year - invasive aquatic plants. We found the native, Northern watermilfoil (Myriophyllum sibiricum), but not the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil. We did not find any curlyleaf pondweed either; but that plant is generally not present this late in the season.

Although not accounted for in our plant survey, we also spotted nine egrets all fishing the shallows on the north end of the lake. The overall report is a happy one; we found a diverse, healthy native submersed plant community thriving in a lovely lake!

Community Conversations in the Watershed

The Watershed District is beginning the process of updating its Management Plan which happens every ten years. We would like to give citizens (that means you!) the opportunity to offer input and insight on issues that affect our local lakes and streams. This fall, at three locations around the District, public meetings will be held to provide a forum for this conversation and discussion.


We invite you to attend a meeting for the area and lakes/creeks that interest you most. You can link to Eventbrite to RSVP for any of these events. http://rwmwd.eventbrite.com/


For more information please contact Sage Passi at 651-792-7958 or sage.passi[@]rwmwd.org


Central Area
Tuesday, September 17, 6-8:30 PM
Location: Maplewood Community Center (Room C), 2100 White Bear Avenue, Maplewood.
Focus areas: Maplewood, Little Canada, St. Paul, North St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights and Gem Lake. (This includes Phalen, Round, Keller, Gervais, Kohlman, Willow, Wakefield and Beaver Lakes).


South Area
Thursday, September 26, 6-8:30 PM
Location: Woodbury City Hall (Ash/Birch conference rooms), 8301 Valley Creek Road, Woodbury.
Focus areas: Woodbury, Landfall, Oakdale, Maplewood, St. Paul (This includes Carver, Battle Creek and Tanners Lakes, Battle Creek, & Fish Creek).

Northwest Area
Thursday, October 3, 6:00-8:30 PM
Location: Shoreview Community Center, Snail Lake Common Room, 4580 Victoria Street North, Shoreview.
Focus Areas: Roseville and Shoreview (This includes Owasso, Wabasso, Snail, Emily and Bennett Lakes).


We would greatly appreciate your insight, so please come to one of the meetings if you can!  If you can't get to the meeting in your area, feel free to come to one of the other two.  An RSVP using the link above is helpful, but not required.

We hope to see you there.

Celebrating a New Addition to the Family

Lake Judy in Shoreview

We are proud to announce that the RWMWD family is growing!

The District has recently expanded its boundaries to include the land area of the former Grass Lake Water Management Organization (GLWMO). This action added 8 square miles to RWMWD’s existing 56 square miles of responsibility, including parts of Roseville and Shoreview, along with 7 major lakes: Snail, Grass, Wabasso, Owasso, Emily, Judy and Bennett.

Whether you're a resident in this area or not, this expansion may bring up many questions.

Why did this merger happen?  Both Shoreview and Roseville needed to change the way expensive water management projects were funded for the land area in the former GLWMO. Previously, money for planning and projects came from the general fund from each city. As bigger water issues came to the forefront, however, it was evident that there were not enough funds available to get these important projects and programs going. This presented a problem since cities have levy limits and moving forward with these clean water projects could mean other city projects wouldn’t be funded in future years. By merging with Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD), the funding source changed and the cities were able to tap into the already-existing programs at the District. 

For an interactive map of the new boundary, click here.

Will this influence your property taxes?  If you live within the former GLWMO, which includes the northeast portion of Roseville and the southeastern portion of Shoreview, the short answer is yes.  These folks probably will notice a change in the estimated property tax statements mailed to them. The statement indicates an increase in the tax levy under the “Other Taxing District” section. This may look like a noticeable increase, but it's not just for the Watershed District.  If the statement included sub-categories, residents would see that it also includes other special tax programs including a levy to fund local housing and redevelopment authorities.

Residents were paying taxes to fund water management in past years, but it was not as noticeable because the funding fell under a general fund that residents were used to seeing on their tax statement.

What do these funds buy?  Understandably, residents may be wondering what they're getting with this 'changing of the guards.' Well, the increased tax levy buys us --RWMWD-- an organization with a proven implementation program and experienced staff to effectively and efficiently solve flooding issues, preserve and enhance wetlands, maintain or improve water quality and more. Without the merger, the GLWMO or cities would have had to develop another funding method to raise additional budget funds. Because $4 million would amount to an unreasonable amount of bake sales, cities would have had to cut important programs elsewhere just to raise the money.

We expect that adopting the former Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization’s lands and waters will be a beneficial addition to our family. We look forward to getting to know the residents in this new area, and are excited to help them maintain the beautiful waters they enjoy in their neighborhoods. Watch for new projects in this area in the near future! 

To get more details on the merger, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions page or feel free to contact us with your questions or concerns using the comment box below or calling 651-792-7950.

FAQ: Grass Lake Merger, Legal and Taxation Details

Frequently Asked Questions:

WHO WAS INVOLVED WITH THIS DECISION?

• The cities of Shoreview and Roseville were burdened with funding and managing the Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization (WMO) that spanned the two cities.   These portions of both cities were not in a Watershed District.  The remainder of each city is in either Rice Creek Watershed District or the Capitol Region Watershed District.  The Grass Lake Watershed management budget funds came from each city’s general funds. 
• BWSR is the state agency that administers the Watershed Act and the Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act.  The Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act allows for the establishment of a joint powers WMO for watershed management, but these organizations are typically funded through a city’s general fund. The Surface Water Management Act also allows cities to petition the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) to shift the burden to a watershed district. 
• The Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization—a joint powers organization of cities in the watershed and mandated by the Surface Water Management Act to manage (and therefore fund) watershed improvements to meet state standards—studied the Grass Lake Watershed and created a draft management plan in 2011, and in so doing realized that management costs would be a burden to the city budgets. 
• Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD)—a watershed management organization with direct property tax levy authority—provided administrative and technical assistance to the Grass Lake WMO in past years.  When the cities realized the need for financial and technical assistance for the WMO,  they looked to neighboring Watershed Districts.  When approached, the RWMWD expressed support for the addition of the Grass Lake WMO to its territory.

WHAT PROMPTED THE MERGER?

• Both cities agreed that a more comprehensive water management program is necessary, but should be managed by an experienced organization with proven ability to manage programs and projects.  The city staff recommended to each City Council that the WMO merge with RWMWD and have future programs and projects managed and funded by the District.

HOW MUCH IS THE WATERSHED TAX?

• The RWMWD levy is approximately 2.5% of a property’s total property tax.  This levy provides approximately $4 million in funds to support RWMWD staff, administrative costs, programs and capital improvement projects.

HOW WILL THIS CHANGE BE REFLECTED ON MY PROPERTY TAXES?

• If you are in the Grass Lake Watershed:  You will begin to see an increased tax under a line item in Ramsey County estimated taxes labeled  “Other Taxing District.”  The money that the District will use for new clean water projects and programs is a portion of this fund. Before the merger, individual properties were still paying taxes to fund stormwater management through the GLWMO, but it was through the city tax levy (general fund).
• If you are in the pre-merger RWMWD:  Your property tax is not affected significantly.  All costs incurred for management of the new 8 square miles of Grass Lake Watershed will be absorbed by all taxpayers in the now-expanded area of RWMWD.

WHAT ELSE IS INCLUDED IN THE ‘OTHER TAXING DISTRICT?

• Estimated property tax statements mailed to taxpayers by Ramsey County on November 16th show estimated property taxes for City, County, School District, Metropolitan Agencies, and Other taxing Districts.  Truth in Taxation statements for properties in the Grass Lake Watershed (located in the northeast portion of Roseville and the southeastern portion of Shoreview) show a dramatic increase in the tax levy under the “Other Taxing District” section.  That increase has several components: 
• a levy to fund local housing and redevelopment authorities.
• a levy to fund any other special local tax programs. 
• a tax levy for the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD)
• The property tax change resulted from the merging of the eight square mile Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization into the 56 square mile RWMWD. 

WHAT IS A WATERSHED MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION AND WHAT DO THEY DO?

• Watershed Management Organizations are required in the Twin Cities Metro Area.  These organizations can be either Joint Powers Organizations or Watershed Districts.  Both organizations are required to prepare Watershed Management Plans and implement improvements and programs to address problems identified in the plans.  Also, several additional programs are mandated by the state or federal government that must be implemented by cities or water management organizations (wetland management, impaired waters, non-degradation, and MS4).  The RWMWD works with our member cities to assist and collaborate on these programs to improve implementation and reduce costs.   Without the merger, the Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization would have had to develop another funding method to raise additional budget funds.  Future property tax impacts may have been similar to the RWMWD tax.

 

WHAT IS THE LEGAL PROCESS FOR ADDING AREAS TO WATERSHED DISTRICTS?

• Cities petition the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR).  BWSR is the state agency that administers the Watershed Act and the Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act.  The cities of Roseville and Shoreview petitioned BWSR to change the management responsibility from the Grass Lake Watershed Management Organization to RWMWD in order to reduce their potential city-wide tax burden for this watershed area.  Following formal approval of the merger, the District changed its boundaries to include the new territory, now totaling 64 square miles.