Lake Smetana in 2024. Photo by Jeff Strate
Editor’s note: This 3-part, in-depth feature by Jeff Strate explores how Eden Prairie’s residents, city staff, and watershed leaders are confronting the challenges facing local lakes and streams – from salt runoff to algae blooms. It’s a story of science, stewardship, and community action. This is Part 3.
Eden Prairie water stewards include three watershed districts; the city’s parks, planning and public works departments; the City Council and Planning Commission; nonprofits like Friends of Red Rock Lake, True Friends/Camp Eden Wood, schools, community service groups and businesses. These caregivers commonly team up on projects. Their mantra echoes around town.
• The Friends of Eden Prairie Parks are partnering with community groups such as The Preserve, the Hopkins VFW Post, the Mitchell Lake Association and individuals on garlic mustard and buckthorn pulls near lakes and wetlands. Both invasive plants disrupt native ecosystems that stabilize shorelines and creek corridors against erosion.
• In 2024, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued an alert about Lake Smetana, where fish have absorbed mercury. Nine Mile Creek Watershed District’s Erica Sniegowski noted that “mercury primarily comes from air pollution, and that’s not a source we can do much about.” The east side of Smetana made the current Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) impaired waters list.
• In April, the MDH recommended only two servings a week of Red Rock Lake crappies. Testing of the panfish revealed enough PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl “forever chemicals”) in their tissues to pose health risks for some people.
• A June 17 workshop on shoreline plantings was held at the Eden Prairie Community Center by clean water nonprofits Metro Blooms and Blue Thumb. That same day, the City closed Riley Lake Beach because of a blue-green algae bloom. The greenish, cyanobacteria produces toxins that can cloud the water, smell badly and cause health problems for swimmers and pets.
• The City of Eden Prairie closed Riley Lake Beach again on Aug. 13 because of a blue-green algae bloom.
• On Sept. 11, the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District and city forestry staff held a buckthorn management workshop at Round Lake. Four days later, the district gave an online/in-person tutorial on chloride pollution.
• Buckthorn removals (pulls) are slated throughout town on October and November weekends. Visit Friends of Eden Prairie Parks for times and locations.
Buffer strips
Southern Eden Prairie resident Judy Berglund, who picks up road salt, and her husband, Steven, are joined by six more of the 18 families who live along the same holding pond in edging their shorelines with native plants. The likes of wildflowers and sedges perform as filtering buffers between grass lawns and the water.
The Mitchell Lake Association (MLA) has assisted at least 14 lakeshore residents in installing native plant buffer strips between their lawns and the water’s edge. It’s a neighborly, slow-moving campaign to change a lawn-loving culture common on thousands of Minnesota lakes.
“I think that’s the fight for it for the next 10 years,” said MLA president Erik Hansen. “It’s not a secret. You can drive by and you can see people are out mowing down to the water line and clearly fertilizing it. So, a big part of what we’re trying to do is educate and hopefully persuade (homeowners) to do something a little different. …They understand that if the lake turns into a swamp that no one wants to live on, that’s not going to help them.”
Local watershed districts, Hennepin County, and the city provide incentives to install shoreline buffers, rain and pollinator gardens, and to restore habitats designed to filter stormwater runoff.
The city’s rebate program offers up to $2,000 for single homeowners and up to $5,000 for commercial, institutional, and homeowner association properties. Eden Prairie’s Landscaping for Water Quality Rebates webpage provides details about this first-come, first-served program. Hennepin County’s website also has a page dedicated to funding and assistance for natural resource projects.
EPLN contributor Kelly Regan’s Aug. 30, 2024, story about the crucial role lakeside homeowners play in keeping local waters healthy includes additional information and helpful links.
Private and public projects on Minnesota lakes and streams are strictly regulated by the Department of Natural Resources. Permits may be required for shoreline alterations such as installing a riprap retaining wall or sand beach.
Here is the DNR list of water and shoreline projects that require a permit.
All in the family
Eden Prairie’s clean-water choir resonates mostly within its active water and open-space stewards. They are a social lot, eager to hand you a trowel, a maple sapling or a nonplastic litter bag.
Families can haul their leaves, clippings and tree branches to the city’s waste site at 9811 Flying Cloud Drive, east of Flying Cloud Airport. Much of the 3,800 cubic yards of vegetation the site takes in each year is composted for gardening.
Families can also volunteer for an Adopt-a-Storm Drain and Storm Drain Marking programs. The former deputizes “first responders” to clean clogged sewer grates and curbs. The latter provides a kit with educational messages reminding neighbors that storm sewers are not for autumn leaves.
EPLN-created graphic from photo and City badge.
Inspired to learn more, or do something about water quality? Below, you’ll find a linked list of the watershed districts and other community resources mentioned in this series.
Blue Thumb
City of Eden Prairie Landscaping for Water Quality Rebates webpage
City of Eden Prairie Storm Drain Volunteer Programs (includes Adopt-a-Storm-Drain and Storm Drain Marking)
City of Eden Prairie Stormwater and Surface Water webpage
Friends of Eden Prairie Parks
Friends of the Minnesota Valley
Friends of Red Rock Lake
Hennepin County funding and assistance for natural resources projects
Lower Minnesota Watershed District
Metro Blooms
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program
Minnesota DNR list of water and shoreline projects that require a permit
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) impaired waters list
MPCA Smart Salting training; resources include manual on Smart Salting for Roads (and parking lots)
Minnesota River Basin Data Center definition and explanation of sediment in the Minnesota River Basin
Minnesota River Congress
Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Mitchell Lake Association
Mitchell Lake Association’s list of aquatic plants
Nine Mile Creek Watershed District
Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District
Previous EPLN coverage on lakeshore health:
“How Eden Prairie preserved miles of shoreline: A legacy of grants, plans, and development fees” by Mark A. Weber
“Lakeshore homeowners play key role in lake health” by Kelley Regan
Earlier in this series
Read Part 1, about the definition of impaired waters and City of Eden Prairie road salt and storm drain initiatives,
here.
Read Part 2, about efforts impacting specific waterways in Eden Prairie,
here.
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Editor’s note: Writer Jeff Strate is a founding EPLN board member. EPLN’s Jim Bayer contributed to this story.