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<br />Barr Engineering Company
<br />4700 West 77th Street • Minneapolis, MN 55435-4803
<br />Phone: 612-832-2600 • Fax: 612-832-2601
<br />SEP 1 3
<br />Minneapolis, MN • Hibbing, MN • Duluth, MN • Ann Arbor, MI • Jefferson City, MO
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<br />To: Grass Lake Water Management Organization
<br />>N~o: Denny Palmer, Karen Chandler, Hal Runke
<br />Subject: Work Plan--GLWMO Water Management Plan
<br />Date: September 9, 1999
<br />This work plan describes tasks for preparation of the GLWMO Water Management Plan (WMP).
<br />We propose to emphasize the issues we perceive the Board feels most important, and to spend less
<br />time on other requirements of the plan. The paragraphs below identify the issues we believe you
<br />feel are most important and describe work tasks necessary to prepare the WMP.
<br />This work plan is not an outline of the WMP, only of the work. Most plans follow the format
<br />inferred by MN Rules 8410: an inventory of resources and related infrastructure; identification of
<br />issues or problems; establishment of standards, goals and policies relating to the issues; and
<br />description of implementation initiatives and capital improvement schedules. Within this format,
<br />the plan must present information regarding precipitation, geology, topography, ditches, wetlands,
<br />the hydrologic system, groundwater, soils, land use, parks and recreation, fish and wildlife habitat,
<br />unique features, and pollutant sources.
<br />Although MN Rules 8410 describes the appropriate content of your WMP, you may vary the format
<br />to best meet your needs. This work plan proposes to focus on issues key to your WMO rather than
<br />a presumed report format. 1n this way, the inventories, problem assessments, policies, and
<br />implementation plans are built around the key issues.
<br />Plan Effiphasis
<br />On the basis of what we have heard in our discussions at Board meetings, with Manages, and
<br />with staff, we believe the key issues involve (1) water quality in wetlands and water bodies, (2)
<br />management of surface water flows, and (3) redevelopment issues. The work will place less
<br />emphasis on the other items required by MN Rules 8410.
<br />Development of a system of accountability and performance evaluation for the WMO and member
<br />communities is also desired, but we have assumed it would be listed as a proposed initiative in the
<br />implementation section of the plan, to be done after plan approval. We have described the system
<br />as a supplemental task, should funding become available and completion of the task accelerated.
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<br />The work tasks below build from the key issues, identified above.
<br />Tank )<.fl-. star Body star ality and Wetlands. The Board wishes to optimize the use
<br />and enjoyment of wetlands and water bodies in the WMO by maintaining or restoring beneficial
<br />uses of the water bodies. This task will establish a strategy for setting resource-based goals for
<br />inventoried lakes and water bodies, assessing whether the goals are (or can be) achieved, and
<br />identifying alternatives or remedies for identified problems. These assessments, described in
<br />paragraphs 1.2 and 1.3, will build upon existing natural resource and water management planning
<br />activities undertaken by the cities, and will not duplicate existing work. Table 1 lists the types of
<br />information that will be assembled for lakes, wetlands, and their watersheds as part of plan
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