Karen Evens of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Cindy Gentz of the Cook County Soil & Water Conservation District have been working on a document for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will establish a standard for the amount of sediment that the Poplar River can safely handle. The Clean Water Act of 1977 requires that such a standard, called a “total maximum daily load” or TMDL, be determined.
At an April 4, 2011 Poplar River Management Board (PRMB) meeting, Evens reported that their document will have many appendixes with detailed data, but she and Gentz are trying to keep the main document to 50 pages.
To be used in this document is information being analyzed by Dr. John Niebur of the University of Minnesota, under contract with the MPCA until the end of June. He has been struggling to come up with a computer program that can adequately analyze each source of sediment in the Poplar River and how much that source is contributing, Evens said. He is looking at ski slopes, roads, buildings, trails, and all other sources of sediment flowing into the river.
The PRMB is working on a bid process for construction of the Ullr Tightline, a drainage system that will diffuse runoff coming down Ullr Mountain. This is the biggest of several projects funded from a major grant from the Great Lakes Commission for sediment mitigation along the lower portion of the Poplar River.
One challenge will be to advertise in the right places in order to recruit firms that do this type of project. The work is planned for this summer.
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