BY KATHRYN KELLY
We now have a new set of Minneapolis Park Board Commissioners. During the campaign the candidates aired some of the same old misinformation about Hiawatha Golf Course. In honor of the new commissioners, it appears that we need another review of the most egregious misinformation.
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Pumping, pumping, pumping! Candidates still say that pumping is the reason why the 18-hole Hiawatha Golf Course cannot continue.
In a debate one of the new commissioners stated that the golf course violated its pumping permits. Years ago Park Board Assistant Superintendent of Planning Michael Schroeder said that the dewatering violated the 36.5 million gallon limit for its pumping permit. But, he was wrong. The only pumping permits the golf course had were for irrigation, not dewatering. DNR records show that Hiawatha Golf Course has never violated its 2 irrigation permits (limits of 36.5 and 2 million gallons). At the time, Hiawatha Golf Course had not been formally required to have a dewatering permit. Due to the controversy that ensued about this misinformation, the DNR asked the Park Board to get a new (third) permit for dewatering, which it did. But, this misinformation continues to have a life of its own.
Another candidate stated to me that the problem with the golf course is the pumping. I had to explain that the DNR has issued a dewatering permit that allows the golf course to pump the water to keep the golf course dry. If the DNR saw that the pumping was harming anything, they would not authorize the pumping.
Then, there is the myth that the golf course pumping is a major contributor to the pollution in Lake Hiawatha, and turning half of the golf course back to a wetland would clean up the lake. Barr Engineering (the Park Board’s contractor) stated that the golf course pumping produces less than 1% of the phosphorus load into Lake Hiawatha, while over 90% of the phosphorus pollution comes from the upper watershed through Minnehaha Creek. It is the watershed that needs to clean up the pollution that it sends to Lake Hiawatha. The Hiawatha neighborhood should not have the burden of cleaning up pollution from the whole watershed.
Then, there is the trash. Somehow opponents of the golf course conflate the trash from the 43rd street pipe and Minnehaha Creek as coming from the golf course. The 43rd street pipe runs under the golf course and flows directly into the lake The delta, which used to be dredged, now directs trash from Minnehaha Creek into the lake proper. On the other hand, the pond system on the golf course filters and cleans storm water that the City of Minneapolis starting dumping onto the golf course in 2012 (about 25% of the pumped water). The new plan would destroy the pond system and replace it with an open ditch that would be directly connected to the lake, thus losing the sequestration of the storm water pollution. It sounds like we would be going backwards?
Let’s also mention that the proposed 9-hole golf course plans are totally unsuitable for their stated target audience (beginners and intermediates) due to the high levels of water bordering the holes. Also, the massive amount of water will add hundreds of golf balls to the water.
Another concern of ours is all of the tree loss, and where will all of the animals go when the property is torn up with massive dredging and moving of dirt.
And, then there are up to 500 homes that would be put at risk of flooding or water intrusion by this project. The latest proposals would put water levels across the street from homes at higher than some of the basements in those homes. When the project team was asked how the homes would be protected, they answered “We don’t know yet.”
All candidates stated that public input is important to them. The last 3 surveys done by the Park Board showed that the large, majority of respondents wanted to keep the 18-hole golf course. Reasons given by the Park Board for ignoring this public feedback were: “Keep 18 holes” was not a statement against the plan (which is untrue), and the February 2025 responses were invalid because a group like SaveHiawatha18 can overwhelm the responses. Really! We have found that no matter what the response is, if it is not what the Park Board wants, they will come up with a reason to discount the results.
For 11 years, there has been much misinformation from Park Board Commissioners and staff. To the new Commissioners – Moran, Garcia, Deshpande, Engelhart and Frederick – please start from square one with no pre-conceived notions of this proposed plan. Ask yourselves what problems this plan is trying to solve, and whether it will really solve these problems. Would this money be better spent in other ways? This is so important considering that, if this plan is actually undertaken, it will be the most expensive project, by far, that the Park Board has ever attempted with huge repercussions to the Hiawatha neighborhood. Plus, make sure that an Environmental Assessment Worksheet is completed for this project.
