Hartley Park is a 640-acre wooded land in the middle of Duluth that features important recreational and educational activities for the local community. The area also includes Tischer Creek – an impaired stream that feeds directly into Lake Superior.
Tischer Creek has E. coli bacteria outbreaks and diminished water quality due to runoff from roads, stream temperature fluctuations, erosion, and “flashy flow,” meaning the waterflow goes quickly up and down. Because these issues can contribute to water quality issues in Lake Superior, the City of Duluth and St. Louis County partnered together to address the problem using GLRI and other state and local funding. The collaborative project was identified as a priority for the Lake Superior Lakewide Partnership, which connects federal, state, and local agencies to one another to help protect the lake’s ecosystem.
The solution to improve the creek’s water quality was implementing green infrastructure that captures water from a 117-acre drainage area. Instead of flowing directly into the creek, water will be captured and filtered in a pretreatment vault, stormwater pond, and five basins. A biochar amendment is mixed into the sand in one basin to reduce bacteria. Each year, the system will remove an estimated 22,000 pounds of sediment, 202 pounds of nitrogen, and 50 pounds of phosphorus.
Additionally, the project also protects native trout by reducing the amount of sediment, chemicals, salts, and litter entering the creek. Partners also worked to remove invasive species in the area including buckthorn, non-native thistles, and tansy creating another added benefit from the project.
To learn more, read the full story on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s website: MPCA helps tap funding streams to create green infrastructure