06-25-08 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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1.0 Introduction One of the primary goats of the Ramsey - Washington Metro Watershed District (District) is to maintain or improve the quality of surface waters to meet or exceed the water quality necessary to support the District's designated beneficial uses. In 1997 the District established beneficial use categories based on desired recreational activities for a waterbody; and revisited again with the 2006 update as part of the development of the Ramsey- Washington Metro Watershed District Watershed Management Plan (Plan) (Barr, 1997; Barr, 2006 [draft]),. The recreational -use categories are ranked from Level 1 through Level 5, with Level 1 water bodies having the highest number of recreational uses and best water quality. In order to help achieve desired water quality goals established in Plan, many of the lakes within the District have been studied in Strategic Lake Management Plans (SLMPs). However, for many of the smaller lakes within the District, SLMPs have not yet been completed and District water quality goals have not been re- evaluated. Because of limited lake information and water quality data, the development of a complete SLMP would not be possible for many of these small water bodies. Instead, a Lake Status Report (LSR) will be developed and recommendations will be made to outline future studies for these lakes, The purpose of this LSR is to summarize and evaluate the available information for Savage Lake which has not been previously studied and to determine appropriate water quality goals based on the current and desired recreational uses, as outlined in the Plan, and through discussion with District staff. The watershed areas tributary to Savage Lake has already been modeled as part of the development of the larger Phalen Chain of Lakes SLMP (Barr, 2004 [Draft]). Figure 1 -1 shows the location of Savage Lake. The Plan (Barr, 2006 [draft]) includes preliminary water quality goals and management classes for each of the District- managed lakes. The water quality goals are defined in terms of total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll a (Chl a), and Secchi disc (SD). The goals outlined in the Plan will remain preliminary until an SLMP or other similar study, such as this LSR, is completed and appropriate goals are determined. The preliminary goals are consistent with either the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) proposed draft criteria for shallow lakes in the North Central Hardwood Forests (CHF) ecoregion (MPCA, 2005), or the goals listed in the 1997 Plan. Barr Engineering Company 1 P : \Mpls \23 MN \62 \2362924\ h(ovcdFromMpls P \2362924\ Other_ProjJnfo\Report fnfoUndividual_LSRn 11109\ Savage \Savago Lake Status_Report.doc 39