Media Notice
EDINA, MN
November 27, 2000

Eighth grade science students at South View Middle School in Edina (4725 South View Lane) will get a firsthand look at both science and city affairs when they join Edina Mayor Dennis Maetzold and other city officials, along with personnel from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) and others, to celebrate the ground-breaking for the project to improve water quality and related park amenities at Pamela Lake and Park, Thursday, December 7 at 1:30 p.m. in the school's Media Center.

Pamela Park is a 64-acre city park located within Edina east of Highway 100 and north of the Crosstown Highway, which contains Pamela Lake, an 18.4-acre wetland designated as a DNR Protected Wetland. In addition to the wetland, the city park contains tennis courts, soccer, hockey and softball fields and is a popular neighborhood place to play and picnic.

The open water areas of Pamela Lake will be dredged in winter 2000-01 to remove phosphorous-laden sediment and to increase the maximum depth from four-feet to eight-feet. Construction of three storm water runoff ponds at the north end of Pamela Park -- plus two sediment basins on the lake's south side -- is slated to begin spring 2001. Contractor Richard Knutson, Inc. has been awarded the project, which is being done as a cooperative agreement between the City of Edina and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. Wenck Engineering serves as the project engineer while Barr Engineering will oversee landscaping efforts, including planting native trees, shrubs and prairie flowers and grasses next spring, working with area school students.

Other park improvements include adding a new trail that will loop around Ponds Two and Three and the western side of the lake. The trail will offer a quiet pedestrian connection between W. 58th Street and W. 62nd Street and a chance to view the ponds and wildlife. (for more details, see enclosed Backgrounders).

"Pamela Park's new ponds are a major component of the comprehensive plan developed by the partnership of the City of Edina, concerned residents of the Pamela Lake Association and the MCWD to address water quality and wildlife habitat concerns for Pamela Lake Park," says Edina Mayor Dennis Maetzold.

"The pollution-cleaning action of the ponds will help clean storm water runoff draining into both Pamela Lake and Minnehaha Creek. That's a lesson that should resound not only with our science class for the event but also with their parents and other Edina residents and visitors who enjoy the entire Pamela Park system."

According to MCWD Board Manager Monica Gross, "Historically, existing wetland areas within the park were part of a much larger wetland complex that drained into Minnehaha Creek. Over the years, development of the city park and adjacent residential areas has resulted in substantial filling of wetland areas and sediment deposit from municipal storm sewers." More than 500-acres of fully developed residential areas currently drain through Pamela Park discharging into Minnehaha Creek.

"Nutrient and sediment loads flowing into the lake from urban storm water runoff have affected the lake's water quality and reduced water depths," Gross notes. "This runoff contains sediments, phosphorous and other pollutants that hurt water quality. We know --based on similar award-winning projects in Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes -- that these ponds work and improve not only water quality, but wildlife habitat, general park aesthetics and overall quality of life."

For more than 33 years, MCWD has monitored and investigated the lakes and streams that feed Minnehaha Creek across two counties and 29 cities and towns, from the upper watershed north and west of Lake Minnetonka to the Lake itself, through the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, to Minnehaha Creek and Minnehaha Falls. The Minnehaha Creek Watershed, working in partnership with cities, townships, and citizen groups, has helped to improve the water quality in most of the lakes and streams in the watershed. Recent lake and wetland restoration projects include: Gleason Creek, Long Lake, Painter Creek, Twin Lakes/Cedar Lake and others.

The MCWD designs and builds projects to protect water resources including: lake restoration; wetland enhancement; erosion repair; and flood control. The District also works with cities, counties, park districts, developers, and others within watershed boundaries for compatible and efficient water resource management. The autonomous government body is funded by small additions to property taxes from those households in the District that benefit from water resource management, with occasional interim funding from cities, counties and the state. The District is also funded through special levies.