Powderhorn Neighborhood of Raingardens

• Project Background
• Timeline
• Get Involved
• Press & Events

See your property? You may be eligible for a $1000 raingarden at no cost to you.

Project Background

Powderhorn Lake is an impaired body of water. Virtually all of the water in the lake comes from storm sewer pipes. In the area around the lake, catch basins (the storm drains you see in curbs near street corners) direct rain water into storm sewer pipes. Litter, animal waste, lawn chemicals, automobile fluids and everything else on the street is carried with this rain water into the pipes and then into the lake. The City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board have used multiple strategies to improve water quality in the lake, but success has been limited and new strategies are needed to improve Powderhorn Lake.

Metro Blooms, in partnership with the City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, will study the impact of raingardens on water quality in Powderhorn Lake. With a grant from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, Metro Blooms will install up to 150 raingardens in yards where rain water runoff goes into storm drains along one of the storm sewer pipes that lead into Powderhorn Lake. We will study the quantity and quality of water in the storm sewer pipe both before and after raingardens are installed. This information will be compared with information from another storm sewer pipe that leads into the lake.

Properties in our test area include many addresses between East Lake Street and East 32nd Street on Portland, Oakland, Park, Columbus, Chicago, Elliot and 10th Avenues. This test area was larger when the project began in 2009, and became smaller as testing equipment in storm sewer pipes was moved in order to collect reliable information.

Project Timeline

Many residents have already received their raingarden design. Others in the test area can call us anytime to schedule an appointment for a Landscape Design Assistant to come to your property for an onsite consultation and raingarden design. Call Metro Blooms at (651) 699-2426 or email corrie@metroblooms.org

Neighbors in the test area should expect mailings, door-knockings and other outreach around the project beginning in April. We will work with neighbors to host informal parties to share information about the project.

In addition, on April 24, we will host an event in the park building at Powderhorn Park. We will offer raingarden education and will show a short video about the project. Residents of the test area will be able to sign up for the project and ask questions.

In June, as a demonstration, approximately 20 raingardens will be installed in the Powderhorn and Central neighborhoods OUTSIDE the test area. Addresses have already been selected.

Most of the raingardens in the test area will be installed in August and September of 2010. Testing of the impacts on water quality will continue for at least three years after installation.

Get Involved

Raingardens will be installed at no cost to participants. Participants will receive:

• An educational workshop
• An on-site consultation with a landscape designer
• A raingarden design tailored to your yard
• Complete installation of the raingarden

In exchange, Participants will be asked to:

• Attend a workshop
• Be present for a designer to look at your property
• To assist with planting as you are able
• Maintain the garden for a minimum of three years

Interested residents and property owners in the test area should contact Metro Blooms at 612-699-2426 or e-mail Corrie Zoll at corrie@metroblooms.org

Press & Events

Neighborhood Of Raingardens  a film about Metro Bloom's effort to clean up Powderhorn Lake directed by Mark Pedelty, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 7:30 PM on TPT