Data leaves MPRB
with more questions and puts golf course improvements on hold
by Tesha M. Christensen
The hundreds of local residents who packed inside the Lake
Nokomis Community Center on Tuesday night, Sept. 15, 2015 expected to be
sharing their opinions on three concepts for the Hiawatha Golf Course.
Instead, they learned that everything at the golf course is
currently on hold.
On Friday, the city of Minneapolis shared information with
the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) from a preliminary study that
shows groundwater issues at the golf course.
It suggests that 273.6 million gallons of groundwater are
being pumped from the golf course each year.
This is not water from a rainstorm or water running into the
course from the city’s stormwater system. Nor is it water coming from Minnehaha
Creek on the south side. Instead, this is shallow groundwater that exists on
the site, always sitting just beneath the ground surface.
“The volume of groundwater being pumped from this site to
enable a game to be played is shocking, and will take time to process and
understand,” stated MPRB District 5 Commissioner Steffanie Musich.
“No doubt like many of you, I am still struggling to
understand what this means for the course and this project as a whole.”
MPRB has been working to improve the golf course with plans
to complete the project in 2016. Part of the work will be paid for by $1.2
million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds following the
storm damage in the summer of 2014 that was the worst at the course since 1987.
The back nine holes at the golf course have been closed since
the flooding, and will remain so as the MPRB doesn’t want to jeopardize its
FEMA funding by doing any work there, said Assistant Superintendent of Planning
Michael Schroeder.
WATER
MAY LIMIT USE AT SITE
While MPRB had considered canceling the Sept. 15 public
meeting, they chose to share this new information with attendees and answer
questions as staff was able, according to Schroeder
Initial data shows that the infiltration rate at one of the
five ponds at the Hiawatha Golf Course is 1.16 cubic foot per second (CFS).
While Schroder acknowledged that 1 cubic foot per second seems small, it
becomes concerning when you add up how much that is per minute, per hour, per
day or per year.
A dimensional analysis of this figure suggests that 273.6
million gallons of groundwater are being pumped off the course each year to
make it playable. The pumps run constantly.
“That’s the number that concerns us,” said Schroeder.
He pointed out that amounts to 15-16 inches covering the
entire 640-acre Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park.
Additionally, the study shows that the ponds are 4 feet lower
than the water level of Lake Hiawatha.
The elevation of Lake Hiawatha is 812.2 feet, the fairways
are at 810 feet and the ponds are at 808 feet.
MPRB does not yet know whether the water levels would even
out if they stopped pumping the groundwater from the ponds, but that is a
question they are looking for an answer to, said Schroeder.
The golf course currently has a permit from the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources to pump 38.5 million gallons of groundwater to
use to irrigate the golf course, which is far below how much is being pumped.
At nearby Lake Nokomis, the elevation level of the lake is
higher than that of the ponds. When it rains, the ponds fill and then overflow
into the lake, according to Musich.
They had assumed the same thing was happening at Lake
Hiawatha.
“While the park planning process from the public view can
seem unnecessarily cumbersome and long, ensuring that our planning process
includes due diligence to validate assumptions uncovers issues and stumbling
blocks early, allowing for a successful project in the long run for generations
of Minneapolitans to come,” said Musich.
A
HOLISTIC APPROACH
When asked by attendees at the Sept. 15 meeting why this
information was just discovered, Schroeder explained that part of its planning
process for the Hiawatha Golf Course is involving the city of Minneapolis and
the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. Each entity has been compiling
information and completing studies. MPRB received information from the city
last Friday that came from a consultant hired by the city.
This initial data, collected as part of a report expected to
be presented to the Park Board and city in November, suggests that the
groundwater volume is greater than previously understood and may pose
limitations for how the golf course land can be used in the future.
“The future park and rec uses of this site are unknown, but I
can assure you, this land will remain parkland even if golf is no longer a
viable use of this space,” promised Musich.
It’s no longer just about how MPRB can accommodate golf, said
Schroder.
However, he assured the crowd that MPRB is still committed
finding a way to accommodate golf as the primary activity at this site, as well
as bettering the water ecology, addressing the trash coming in the city’s
stormwater culvert on the north side, and including non-golf activities.
“We are trying to look at this in a very holistic way,”
stated Schroeder, one that doesn’t waste millions of taxpayer dollars when the
course floods again.
Several residents stressed that golfers won’t be interested
in using Hiawatha unless it is an 18-hole course. Schroeder acknowledged that
the city recognizes the viewpoint of golfers.
He added that by simply reconfiguring the golf course, MPRB
can deal with many of the water and trash issues, which earned a round of
clapping from the crowd.
Schroder also pointed out that 15% of the city’s population,
or 60,000 people, golf, and the MPRB sees the value of this recreational use
for residents.
“We’re trying to find a solution - as crazy as it might seem
- to keep everybody happy,” said Schroeder.
GOLF
USAGE GOING BACK UP
According to MPRB Director of Golf Keith Kainy, golf usage in
Minneapolis has been rebounding since a nationwide low during the recession of
2008/09. He also pointed out that what astounds him is Hiawatha is one of the
few golf courses he knows of that didn’t take a drop in rounds during the
recession.
Schroeder did note that the MPRB is making changes to ensure
that its golf courses, including Meadowbrook farther upstream, are
self-sustaining in the future. While 15 years ago, the city’s golf courses made
$1,845,849, in 2013, they lost over half a million dollars, according to a
report prepared last year by Golf Convergence for the Park Board.
GOLF
COURSE USEFUL FOR FLOODWATER STORAGE
Lake Hiawatha, originally called Rice Lake, was formerly a
wetland. It was dredged in the 1920s to create a lake and the golf course was
built with the fill material.
Attendees at the Tuesday night meeting recalled swimming in
the lake as children when it was 35 feet deep, compared to the 8-9-feet-deep it
is now.
One resident suggested that the creek is adding too sediment
to the lake, and he advocated for blocking the lake off from Minneahaha Creek.
“You disconnect the creek from the lake and you get a more
polluted lake,” said Minnehaha Watershed District Board Vice President Brian
Shekleton. He explained that if the pollution entering the lake from the city’s
stormwater culvert had no way to leave the lake, it would get more
concentrated.
Another resident suggested that the outflow be increased to
allow more water to flow out of the lake.
Skekleton observed that this will result in basements
flooding downstream, which is why the Watershed District was created 50 years
ago to prevent.
“The golf course is a better place for flood waters to be
stored than neighborhood streets,” said Schroeder.
Lisa Cerney, director of surface water and sewers for the
Public Works Department in Minneapolis, stressed that “the groundwater is not
new water to this system. It is existing water there already.”
Skekleton remarked that they may be able to increase the
storage capacity of the creek during storms by remeandering it. This is what is
being done upstream in Hopkins and St. Louis Park. By putting the creek back
where it was in the 1920s and 30s, they are slowing the speed of the water to
prevent sediment build-up and increasing the capacity to hold water from
storms.Through various measures upstream, they will reduce stormwater run-off
by one-third.
CAN
TRASH FROM STREETS BE PREVENTED?
Some at the meeting pushed for a solution to the trash problem
around the city’s stormwater culvert on the north side, and asked that the MPRB
allow neighborhood resident Sean McConnaughy to implement a short-term solution
this fall.
The stormwater culvert there drains the area south from Lake
Street.
Schroeder responded that he have an answer to that question.
WHAT
HAPPENS NEXT?
MPRB will continue to solicit comments from community members
about what they’d like to see at the golf course. Comment online at
minneapolisparks.org/currentprojects.
After more data is collected, MPRB will hold another
community meeting to share information. Schroeder expects that to be within the
next 2 to 3 months.
Following that, MPRB will proceed with concept plans once
more, and will know whether the timeline for work in 2016 is still feasible.
This story appeared in the October 2015 Messenger.
