2014 Vol. 8 Issue 5 October - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 4 of 6 MS-4 Public Hearing A state mandated report on storm water management, called the MS-4 Report, has been completed for 2014 by council member Jim Lindner and engineer Ron Leaf from SEH, the company that acts as Gem Lake's City Engineer. The report was the subject of a public hearing on September 16 during the city council meeting, as required by law. The report details the city's efforts to educate citizens on the subject of storm water runoff. It also documents inflows and outflows of storm water in the city, as part of a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan. Jim Lindner volunteered to do the leg work, walking around the city to document and inspect the storm water facilities. The city also had to detail in the MS-4 report things like its post construction storm water management procedures, pollution prevention efforts, illicit discharge detection and elimination and efforts to involve the public in the process of storm water management. Procedures for completing and filing the annual MS- 4 report have become more complicated in the past year, necessitating the use of expert engineering services to get the job done. The report shows that the city has met its MS-4 requirements, including doing the inspections need and completing all suggested community education and outreach required on the subject of storm water management. Detecting and Resolving Ground Contamination Issues Is there soil contamination in the Gem Lake Business District, and if so, what can we do about it? To answer these questions, the Gem Lake City Council asked the city engineers, SEH, to do an official Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) of the Hoffman's Corner area. This assessment is now underway. Phase I of the project involved doing historical research of the area. This included looking at what kinds of businesses occupied the area and how these businesses operated. This led to an assessment of where ground contamination might be and what it might . City News Page consist of. The results of this research led SEH to determine where soil testing might need to be conducted. Phase II of the project is now underway. This phase involves finalizing the plan as to where and how many soil borings should be done and then getting permission from business owners to do the testing. Following the soil borings, analysis will be conducted to determine the extent and magnitude of contamination in soil, groundwater and soil vapor, if groundwater or soil contamination is present. For the purposes of planning, it was assumed that about 48 "Geoprobe" borings would be done, ideally at about 14 different parcels. It was assumed that approximately six of the borings would be to a maximum depth of 30 feet below ground surface, and the remaining 42, or so, would be to a maximum depth of 12 feet. It is hoped to collect about 54 soil samples, three groundwater samples and ten soil vapor samples. All the samples will be analyzed for various volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, as well as various metals. The end result of the Phase II research will be a detailed report on what was found, along with recommendations on what to do about it. If contamination is found, SEH may be able to suggest and grant and loan programs that are potentially available to help clean things up, making the area more attractive for possible development or redevelopment. The process of completing the investigation, as well as grant applications, could run until Spring of 2015.