06-09-2004 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 31, 2004 Gervais Lake Association 675 East County Road B -2 Little Canada MN 55117 SUBJECT: Letter of March 11, 2004, pertaining to the West Vadnais Lake Outlet Dear Lake Association Board Members: Thank you for your detailed letter of March 11th. I will attempt to respond to each of your issues in this letter. I understand that Terry Noonan from Ramsey County is also preparing his response. The numbers below correspond to the numbers of each major question in your letter. 1. Issues related to the proposed 15 -inch pipe from West Vadnais Lake I completely understand your concern for new stormwater entering our District, and ultimately to Lake Gervais. As I mentioned in previous meetings, the District was initially totally opposed to this idea as well, and one of its primary conditions was that the outlet water entering our District could not exacerbate potential flooding in the Ramsey - Washington Metro Watershed District. We required that all hydrologic calculations illustrate that there is no net effect on flood levels during the 100 -year flood. It is basically true that the only reason and need for the outlet is to protect Rice Street (Hwy 49); however, high water levels are also currently impacting the St. Paul Regional Water Treatment Plant property. Rice Street is a major north -south corridor, and Ramsey County maintains that this roadway cannot be flooded and closed for any period of time. The high water that is currently impacting the roadbed of Highway 49 will also result in more rapid deterioration of the roadbed and road surface, resulting in considerable expense on the part of the county to keep this road in repair. The only waters that would be exiting the West Vadnais Lake Outlet are waters from West Vadnais Lake. The West Vadnais Lake watershed is extremely small--just the land immediately surrounding the lake. Although an outlet exists from Grass Lake to West Vadnais Lake, the outlet does not function. I have been assured by the Grass Lake WMO that this outlet is not planned to be used. As discussed at a previous meeting with Mugs and Mark, the county clarified that Grass Lake and West Vadnais Lake are hydrologically connected through groundwater and are usually almost exactly the same level. Twin Lake is considerably lower in elevation than West Vadnais Lake, and water does not go from Twin Lake to West Vadnais. The historical outlet for West Vadnais was either straight south through a county ditch that no longer functions because of the freeway, or easterly toward Twin Lake. This connection between West Vadnais and Twin Lake no longer exists. - 1 8 -