Northeast is the beneficiary of five grants awarded recently by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) for environmental work. These green infrastructure projects capture, treat and/or reuse stormwater runoff. Grants range from $3,000 to $550,000. All of these projects will begin this year.
Community Commons Park, 1037 Central Avenue
This little green space on the southwest corner of Broadway and Central is owned by the St. Anthony East Neighborhood Association. The group received a $3,000 mini grant to create a rain garden to manage runoff at the site.
2333 Jackson Street (“Jax”)
This apartment building on the corner of 24th and Jackson received $203,100 from MWMO for its “smart blue roof.” The roof is designed to handle water in several ways. One portion of the roof will funnel water into an underground cistern. Another portion will hold stormwater on the rooftop. The captured stormwater can evaporate over time, drain into an underground re-use tank or be used to water a green roof of native plants. The system features smart controls that make sure the re-use tank is always full and the green roof is always watered.
Islamic Cultural Community Center, 2534 Central Avenue
The Masjid Al-Huda received $49,928 to redesign its parking lot and send runoff to a series of rain gardens on the lot’s perimeter. The main entry will be rebuilt with permeable pavers.
Columbia Park Golf Course, St. Anthony Blvd. & Central
A large portion of the water that runs downhill in Northeast ends up at Columbia Park. About 75 percent of that water also makes its way into the Mississippi River, carrying all kinds of pollutants with it. Over the next two years, MWMO will work with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to install a series of best management practices (BMPs) for handling stormwater at the park. Bioretention and infiltration basins, rain gardens, native plants and sewer improvements are some of the projects they plan to implement. MWMO announced in January that it had received $800,000 from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources for the project.
East Side Storage and Maintenance Facility, 340 27th Avenue NE
The City of Minneapolis’ new storage and maintenance facility will feature a variety of BMPs, from rain gardens to culverts and other structures to capture and remove pollutants from stormwater. That’s good, because the facility will be used to store trucks, plows and street-cleaning vehicles as well as salt and sand used for road maintenance. MWMO’s Capital Project Grant of $550,000 will be used to fund the green infrastructure and a portion of the underground storage, which will be above and beyond City of Minneapolis requirements for water quality treatment and rate control. The grant will also be used to support interpretative signage, targeting a clean water message to visitors and employees at the site.
Below: Jax rendering, provided by MWMO; East Side Maintenance Facility, above. (Photo by Cynthia Sowden)
