Trying to make sense of the park board

BY ED FELIEN

The big meeting organized by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to discuss pumping at the Hiawatha Golf Course took place Tuesday, June 14, at Pearl Park.  There was a big storm predicted for the evening, with a tornado watch for the 6:30 to 8:30 time of the meeting, but, except for a little rain, nothing serious really happened.
The same could be said for the meeting—a lot of sound and fury, signifying very little.
Michael Schroeder, the assistant superintendent for planning, explained what they’ve learned from studying the problem of flooding since the great storm of 2014.  Currently the park board is pumping 263 million gallons of water out of the golf course into the lake.  He confirmed what we said months ago, the water that’s pumped out of the ground water from the golf course goes into Lake Hiawatha and then returns to the ground water under the course.  If they stopped pumping, then the water table on the golf course and in the surrounding neighborhood would rise by about a foot, making most of the golf course unplayable and making about 20 homes uninhabitable.
The long-term solution to this problem is the one we’ve proposed for months, you must dredge Minnehaha Creek from 28th Avenue to the falls to lower the water level of Lake Hiawatha and the water table for the surrounding area that is subject to flooding.  This would solve the problem for the next 50 years, until silt brought from upstream raised the water level in the creek and lake again.
The park board handed out a sheet of Frequently Asked Questions at the meeting, and the first one spoke directly to our proposal to dredge the creek:  “Who has jurisdiction over Lake Hiawatha and Minnehaha Creek?  Any alterations such as excavation, filling or changing water levels of the lake, the creek or their floodplains would require permits and approvals from some or all of the following regulatory agencies: the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Army Corps of Engineers.  The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and City of Minneapolis do not have jurisdiction over these matters.  Obtaining the necessary permits and approvals to alter lakes, streams, wetlands and floodplains is difficult in Minnesota.  Any proposed alterations to Lake Hiawatha and/or Minnehaha Creek may be denied by one or several of the agencies with jurisdiction.”
In other words, trying to dredge the creek would mean going through a lot of Bureaucratic Snafu—or, B. S.  It seems inconceivable to me that appointed bodies and bureaucrats wouldn’t want to serve the interests of elected officials, and that they would want to preserve homes and the golf course.
During the question and answer period, I asked two questions:
First, how much did the study cost, in terms of money paid to Barr Engineering and staff time?  Schroeder said the original contract with Barr was for $104,000, and they’ve gone back to them a number of times after the original period, and he and one other senior staff person have been working on this project.
Second, do our elected officials have the political will to dredge the creek?  Do they want to do it?  Schroeder said they would want to have more study of the effects of dredging before they decided.
As readers of Southside Pride know, I wrote to Tillges Excavating and asked how much they would charge to dredge a creek, digging a trench 4 feet deep, 4 feet wide and 1.3 miles long (about the distance from 28th Avenue to the falls).  They said, “It would all depend on the conditions. For example if it’s wet conditions you could get as high as 100,000.00 or even higher. I just bid a dig for electric trench one mile long and that bid was for dig and back fill that estimate was 85,000.00. I’d guess if it’s good conditions you’d be looking at 55,000.00 that would also be spreading out the excess dirt in a reasonable distance from the creek bed.”
Ron Sundboom asked what the Topol elevation was at Lake Hiawatha and at Minnehaha Falls.  One of the staff said the top of the falls was 800 feet above sea level and Lake Hiawatha was 812.8 feet.
That means there is a 12.8-foot gradient from Hiawatha to the Falls.  You could lower the creek by 4 feet and there would still be a drop of 8.8 feet from the lake to the top of the falls.
Schroeder concluded by saying there was still plenty to study to understand the total effects of the water tables and flooding and pumping.  It could take five years to finish the study.
Maybe after five years of study and another $500,000 to $1 million they’ll discover that water runs downhill.
After the meeting I asked Steffanie Musich, the park commissioner from the district and the elected official directly responsible for the studies, whether she supported dredging the creek from 28th Avenue to the falls by 4 feet to lower the water table?
She said, “I think it needs to be studied.  We don’t know what kind of disruption that would be to the ecology.  There are muskrats, turtles and otters.”
Me: “But there are homes where the basements are being flooded.”
Musich: “We don’t know that.”
Almost 50 years ago I spent some time in a Zen monastery in the Los Padres National Forest in California.  The Zen master, Suzuki, said something I didn’t understand at the time, “Don’t let a frog laugh at you.”
I understand it now.  I think I hear muskrats laughing.