Browsing by Author "Lonsdale, David"

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    Conservation Design Toolkit for LakeSuperiorStreams.org Stormwater Pollution Prevention Pilot Project
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2006) Axler, Richard P; Schomberg, Jesse; Will, Norman; Reed, Jane; Lonsdale, David; Granley, Mindy; Hagley, Cynthia
    Duluth, Minnesota has 43 named streams, 12 trout streams, and borders both pristine Lake Superior and the Duluth-Superior-Harbor Area of Concern. Duluth's storm water infrastructure includes 93 miles of streams and wetlands, and urbanization and rural development impact these waters by increasing runoff and velocity, temperature, turbidity and sediment, road salt, organic matter and nutrients. In 2002, an EPA (Environmental Monitoring for Public Access & Community Tracking) grant established a Partnership called DuluthStreams between the City of Duluth, University of MinnesotaDuluth professionals at the Natural Resources Research Institute and Sea Grant Program, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Western Lake Superior Sanitary District. Their goal was to enhance public understanding of streams and their connections to watershed land use by using real-time data and interpretive materials to illustrate the nature and consequences of degraded stormwater and its real costs to society. This has included issues associated with too much runoff such as flooding, with a key issue in the region being sanitary sewer overflows from infiltration and inflow (I&I). These events have imposed risks to public health and environmental risks to the coastal zone of Lake Superior and the Duluth-Superior Harbor, and required costly programs to reduce stormwater flows from key neighborhoods and construct storage tanks for temporary storage of stormwater enhanced sanitary sewer flows. The consequences of excess water and peak flows have also included excess sediment and turbidity, and potentially excess nutrients and pathogens. High salt concentrations for significant periods in late winter and early spring runoff from winter road and parking lot de-icing can present additional stress to trout and their prey. Increasing impervious surface and direct and indirect removal of riparian vegetation increases peak temperatures, especially during base flow periods creating additional periods of stress to cold water species with the additional potential stress of lowered dissolved oxygen. In 2003, sixteen governments and groups in the North Shore Region joined to form the Regional Stormwater Protection Team (RSPT). The Team's mission is to protect and enhance the region's shared water resources through stormwater pollution prevention by providing coordinated educational programs and technical assistance. One of the vehicles that the RSPT has harnessed for its stormwater education campaign is the DuluthStreams website as part of a regional effort to provide water pollution information to the public. The project has now expanded to now include 22 communities, agencies and organizations. In 2005 the website was re-named lakesuperiorstreams.org to reflect the broader geographic region that it represents in terms of climate, soils, quality of life, natural resources, the Lake Superior watershed, and culture. The website now averages more than 300,000 "hits"/month and >75,000 "page requests"/mo with a national target audience that includes: the general public; students and teachers; contractors, consultants and developers; decision makers; and agencies (local, state, and federal). Additional information is best found by examining http://lakesuperiorstreams.org.
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    DuluthStreams heads north: Making North Shore stream data make sense to citizens and local officials
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2007-09-25) Axler, Richard P; Will, Norman; Host, George E; Henneck, Jerald; Lonsdale, David; Sjerven, Gerald; Reed, Jane; Ruzycki, Elaine; Hagley, Cynthia; Schomberg, Jesse; Carlson, Todd; Lonsdale, Marnie
    The Duluth Streams website initially focused primarily within City of Duluth boundaries, but some of the streams that intersect Duluth originate in the surrounding communities of Hermantown and Proctor. In addition, Duluth and Superior share the St. Louis River watershed. The current project enabled us to fully expand the DuluthStreams website into a regional entity. It was built on a previous, but limited, Lake Superior Coastal Program Enhancement Fund effort to Minnesota Sea Grant at the University of Minnesota and partners that created web links to Proctor, Hermantown and Superior on the DuluthStreams website. This made these communities ideal as the first candidates for a regional expansion. As the project continued to evolve it became clear from discussions within the RSPT and with state agencies that there was a need to expand the focus area of the website to include the “greater Western Lake Superior” region and more specifically the Minnesota North Shore and Wisconsin South Shore in order to better manage Superior Basin water resources by supporting the mission of the RSPT regarding developing regional technical cooperation and collaboration, common educational materials, and presentation of case studies of successful stormwater designs. Minnesota streams draining into the Lake Superior coastal zone and St. Louis River Estuary are typically sensitive, low productivity, high-quality trout streams. Some (Miller, Amity, Lester, Talmadge, French, Poplar, Brule) are currently listed on the MN Clean Water Act (303d) List of Impaired Waters - most commonly for turbidity and Fish-Hg (MPCA 2006). Steep topography and thin, erodible soils make these streams particularly sensitive to development. Effective management and remediation of these streams requires an understanding of their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, which can only be obtained by monitoring, particularly during storm and snowmelt runoff events, when the most dramatic impacts occur. These data are critical for developing and assessing BMPs, particularly in the face of increased development in the high growth watersheds along the North Shore of Lake Superior (e.g. Anderson et al. 2003; MPCA 2000; IJC 1999). MPCA initiated long-term monitoring of 6 critical streams along the North Shore in 2002. However, MPCA has lacked the resources to install automated water quality sensors, which are needed to capture critical pollutant loading events during high flows - important for developing cost-effective remediation and mitigation strategies.