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ROUND LAKE UNIT DESCRIPTION AND BACKGROUND The Round Lake Unitof the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge is located in the community of Arden Hills in Ramsey County, Minnesota. Ecologically, it lies within an area of Minnesota known as the Anoka Sand Plain, which was historically characterized by oak savanna and sand prairie. Anoka Sand Plaintopography is highly variable and its upland soils support a heterogeneous mixture of grassland, trees and shrubs. The Unitis comprised of about 154 acres of land held in fee title and managed as habitat for wildlife. About125of these acres are occupied by a permanently flooded basinnamedRound Lake(Figure 1). Round Lake is located at the top of the watershed and is dominated by hydric soils, with open water and a fringe of emergent vegetation. The remainder of the Unitis comprised of 29 acres of upland. This upland habitat occupies a relatively narrow zone, typically about 200 feet wide, around the lake. Most of this area supports Oak Savanna or Oak- Maple Woodland communities. An additional 7+/-acres areheld as a permanent easement that contains a 48-inch diameter pipeline that was usedas a sewer lineunder previous ownership and was transferred with the property to the Service in 1974. The Unit is bounded on the west by light industrial development and on the south and east by private homes. This Unit is northeast of St. Paulandabout 22 miles from the Refuge Headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. Prior to Service ownership, the Round Lake Unit was under the ownership and management of the Department of the Army (Army) as part of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP). The area, designated by the Army as TCAAP Area H, was operated as part of TCAAP’s stormwater and wastewater systems. Area H was declared excess by Army in 1973 and made available for transfer to another federal agency. In 1974, the General Services Administration transferredthe area to the Department of the Interior (Interior) for the purpose of wildlife conservation under the authority of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Interior assigned the area to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge to be managed as the Ramsey County Waterfowl Production Area(WPA). In 1979, the Service transferred the management of Ramsey County WPAto Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and it became designated as the Round Lake Unit of this Refuge. Contaminants were identified in the groundwater immediately adjacent to the Unit in 1981. These contaminants are attributed to discharges from the TCAAP (MPCA 1981). Part of the Unit was declared a Superfund site by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in 1983 under the provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Subsequent testing by Army found PCBs and heavy metals in Round Lake sediments near sanitary/industrial gravity flow sewer line outfalls (USFWS 1988). Further sediment testingfound this contamination to be more widespread than originally thought (Wenck 2010,2011).As part of the ongoing clean-up of the larger TCAAP site, the drainage of wastewater from TCAAP into Round Lake was halted in 1991. However, Round Lakecontinues to receive stormwater inputs from the watershed, including overland flow from the TCAAP site. 8/6/2013 2 USFWS RLMP