sea water has a very very deep commitment in the city of maplewood and making sure that everybody understands what the huge partner the watershed is here and maybe they've done many many projects which just the last few not come close to about ten million dollars worth of investment in our city we're here celebrating the opening of the maplewood mall stormwater retrofit project which reduces the volume of water coming off the maplewood most parking lot typically will infiltrate or capture and treat about a one inch rainfall over the entire parking lot here through green gardens tree trenches sand filter or captured  and this is a demonstration for other commercial property owners and what they can do it retro fit their parking areas to help water quality in that area lakes and streams all regards are really quite simple they're basically a very shallow broad dish in the landscape that holds water and soaks it into the ground in the water's coming off of a hard surface around it so like here the water's draining off the roof hits the the sidewalk and drains over into the garden work and then be soaked into the ground as opposed to going off to the street where you go down in a catch basin a little bit learn you we want to use that water we want that water as a resource rather than  pollutant or a commodity we have to deal with downstream we know the urban forests with additional trees in these a statics and that can come through rain garden plant teams and that's also treating storm water so absolutely it's kind of a holistic approach it allows it treats that storm water it goes into the ground and it goes back to the water table so it really catches the water where it falls and it's a really great tool that you bought or it isn't taken up here in the garden it is now in the see this morning's presentations and the ribbon cutting and we're going to celebrate the kickoff of this project which is nearly done we're not quite completed but will be by the end of this year  when this is over but we started talking with simon properties orders a mate with all but five years ago about collaborating on this project and it's been a great collaboration in a minute i'll introduce that or distinguish speakers talk about their role in this effort and been in the meantime though i'd like to talk about the schedule events today and then make a few remarks and then turn it over to our othe speakers following the presentations here in the ribbon cutting construction is going to take their truck which is the water and they're going to run across the porous papers which you all walked across to get here and show how that infiltrates and it's the speakers if they want to hang around and then also some people will be here to give tours anybody else is interested and then throughout the day every half hour we're going to have tours available you can sign up for weight or by the information table and then link you up with a staff person  a consulting engineer to help explain all of what's going on here oh that's not really really apparent so we'd like you to take part of that if you can at noon we'll hear of attrition the chinese will be doing an event thirty first with a show at the stage  tent very enjoyable for everybody particularly for children at twelve forty five we're going to start doing a bunch of stage treatment patients by various people during the day and they will be alternating throughout so about three tent displays there's a number of displays in there about water management as well as the project itself the district somewhere collaborating agencies are going stations have tents and also at the printer tents and out of the city the conservation district information on our current management project was noticing the districts involved in another issue so please please visit those and if you haven't already please pick up a commemorative water bottle that we're distributing from the information table at the large  and our boundaries are drawn on hydrologic lines not political boundaries so we're much like a school district there are boundaries meander all over the place and you have to be a part of the district in order to know where they actually are but they're the  of cover all of the failing chain of lakes drainage area battle creek fish creek you say the same paul you know we've recently added the grass lake water management organizations otherwise said to grassley as part of our district as well boundaries were governed by a five member board of managers like our city council and we do have authority to levy property taxes so all of you that live in the districts do support us and we thank you for that the district primary role is to protect to restore water quality in our wetlands creeks and lakes as well as protect people and property from flooding we do this through programs like our construction site permitting program have a tent restoration and education programs we also conduct our mission through projects on individual properties a collaborative projects with our communities and counties as well as capital improvement projects like this project here over the past thirty five years the district has completed over thirty seven capital improvements to address flood control and water quality improvements in the watershed these projects range from smaller projects of fifty two hundred thousand all the way up to multi million dollar projects like this one here  seek out our district staff and consulting engineers either at the tables or they will be people stationed throughout the plaza to answer questions as well now wait when we do this project several people have asked me over the last several months all of you know this area is heavily developed and some will say it's one hundred percent developed there are areas of open space in parkland but besides that we're all covered by streets parking lots driveways buildings and all that's what we call impervious surfaces and those impervious surfaces don't allow water to soak into the ground so as you know when water runs out of a parking lot had flows heavily down to it there is a catch basin and that catch basin is connected to or creeks wetlands and lakes almost forty percent of the land in the water should too coleman link is streets parking lots and driveways and all those surfaces are basically directly connected to the catch basin somewhere in those catch basins and those pipes out there to a water resource and that's why we use the term often that every curve is a shoreline because those men if you live on a lake or live on a wetland or creek the water coming off the front of your house is and that wetland creek or lake within minutes and so it's just like your you were on a lake and you're runoff is going right into it so it's important for everybody to keep their leaves grass clippings litter and  study is supposed to identify ways to meet those state standards and that study basically told us that what we have to do is limit the amount of pollution that comes from our impervious surfaces and the only way to really limited in an already developed urban area is to do what we call retrofitting we have to put in things that weren't there before to intercept that water so this is a great project and shows how that can be done obviously we've also learned that it's a significant challenge and  surface and so it's obvious to us that if we're going to make a big dent in runoff we have to start trying to address made with all in so started talking with simon properties and we're learned a lot we learned about commercial property management we learned that they don't actually control everything sometimes one of big things we learned is that every major tenants in this mall actually owns a portion of the parking lot and we thought that we just had to deal with one owner and if you really easy well they had to deal with their tenants and they had to get approval of their tenants and all that took time in them but it got done and they've been great to work with and so we started this project out we started with the phase one which was just the  so we develop those plans and work with the same property used to do in agreement on how to work with their properties and how to do maintenance and we now have over a mile of tree trenches fifty five ring gardens one in hand sand filter and three hundred twenty five new trees in this property so it's we think it's quite an accomplishment so this leads me to balance our significant sponsors and partners in this project which we couldn't do today without doing that because that's their big part of it first of all their board of managers thank you for being willing to be innovative and forward thinking the job the watershed management is scientifically and financially challenging simon property for recognizing the need and for your willingness to collaborate with a government partner to address an issue of greater public benefit or partnering state agencies minnesota push agency and port of water and so resources your staff are been helpful and we would have been able to complete this project as rapidly without your financial assistance and so the citizens of state of minnesota for actually i should mention that there actually are some videos in there this show how the tree trenches are constructed which is really hard for us to convey to you you know to work and finally to bite construction they've been our contractor for phase two three and  day to celebrate something that i really believe is a is a wide ranging important project for the maplewood mall and for the citizens that live in the near it there's no question of my boy it was a good adventure it's like  we're the ones that meet once a month and give the staff a little bit of problem stahl and then as to what's going on and how things are going and we're the ones that make the final decisions with regard to the financing of various projects and how the money will be spent cliff mentioned some characteristics of the districts yes it is sixty some four acres so it's quite large but it's small relative to some other districts in the state of minnesota but if you those in northern minnesota the one thing he didn't mention was within the district there are eleven lakes that we are responsible for there are five major creeks that we watch over and there are literally thousands of wetlands just think about thousands of wetlands that are watched over by this particular watershed district through sure that they function well and are preserved in a matter that is important the district also includes parts of in some cases the totality of ten different cities  maintain the integrity of the water that exists within the state and the practices that have her on that water and to make sure that the water is provided to the citizens in a manner that will enhance their satisfaction in terms of the resources that are available the district takes a lot of pride in a lot of different things one of which it takes pride in being an innovator and a leader in the field of watershed management the more you get to know the district you'll find that we try a lot of the unusual things some work some vote but we try to be innovative we are really highly focused on results and a high level of performance we don't let things just drift away we make sure that something happens and that accountability is a very important part of our efforts and the last thing is we are very very proud of the fact that we are engaged in collaboration with other public and private organisations cliff mentioned a little bit of this but as regards collaboration the maplewood mall i think exemplifies the notion of collaboration and cooperation with public and private organizations this project began but the maplewood mall project per se began and the year two thousand and seven  some informal discussions with warrior was the manager at the time of the maplewood mall discussions about the need for storm water management and its adjacent properties well here five years later six and a half million dollars later and hundreds of meetings we see today the product of these discussions in the partners in this venture were unreal they were very close partners as cliff mentioned including simon properties the city of maple mall project will be many and we're all going to be blessed with those results especially noteworthy are the improvements in the quality of not water in the number of the down stream lakes including coleman jarvis keller and failing light it is also this dick's intent to have the project serve as a vehicle for interacting with the public in an educational mode on matters concerning the importance of water quality so that citizens can better understand the reasons behind the importance of water quality within the district and it's also the distribution tent to have the project be a demonstration for other commercial and retail areas throughout the district in the metropolitan area in fact the project is no garnering attention of those managing real estate and storm water you know various parts of the united states we get calls monthly on what are we doing and how we're going to do it so we're having an influence nationwide these are exciting times for the big board mall its environs more so when you consider a number of other projects that have been undertaken within a near the mall in the last couple years the white bear avenue improvements the county ro improvements the parks and ride development over here to the other side of the mall the interior remodeling of the mall which is which is really phenomenal and also the variety of new businesses that are being established even in the realm the mall all of this brings a synergy that makes the entire region better for us as citizens to enjoy our community due to its credit the watershed district had an important influence on ensuring that these are pleased really pleased that you have taken the time to view and enjoy the results thank you very much you today is a very important day i'm sure that you're all aware that it is the opening day of and i have to tell you i'm an avid hunter and so i was a little conflicted as we went forward in that done early on i had signed up to speak today and then i kind of figured out i had a conflict in my schedule and so for a while i thought well i guess i'm going to miss it because i'll be up north but then i thought about it a little bit and some things are just too important to take in and put my personal fun in place of what is happening here in the city of maplewood and so i found it much easier to change my schedule to make sure i was here and i wanted to make sure i was here because i want to make sure everyone understands what an important partner the watershed is in the city of maplewood now the previous speakers have talked about all the other groups that are involved but most of those groups are really the  watershed our main contact is with the watershed itself and so there really are mean partner in this project the culmination that's been talked about that time spent the amazing effort of taking the many many acres that make up the mall area and actually doing something that will really improve the wall of water quality downstream is just an immense undertaking there are other things though if you go to their website over on the left side of their page there's a listing of their projects i believe it numbers in the forty or fifty area of the things that they've done and so i wanted to just talk a little bit about some of the other things that they're partnering with maplewood in helping us accomplish in maplewood much to the credit of the staff and the console in past councils is known in some areas of water management nationwide where the leading city as far as rainwater gardens as far as i know anywhere in the country there are people that come to us much like they were talking about coming to the watershed and what are you doing how you doing it there are people that to us to talk about that and so we have tried very hard in the city to be an environmentally friendly city and a lot of that couldn't happen without the watershed we currently have a living screech project going on a little bit down by three m in our city our partnership with them there has made that possible it was something that we were hoping to have to do but the money the grant money  needs to come from somewhere and so without their partnership i'm sure we would not be doing that as we work our way down the flow of the watershed here in the lake coleman there is a permanent  barrier that was put in by the water there is a really interesting sand filter that's over by cosco and that was i saw it one day when i was going through a nationwide magazine there was there was there talked about it they highlighted it it has done a tremendous job is a little bit experimental but it's done a tremendous job of removing the various pollutants that work their way downstre am there's all this lake level in creek level monitoring because they need to know what's going on in those bodies of water in order to know what it is they need to do and down a beaver lake they did an improvement down there that helped us out and a huge project down at fish creek in the very southern part of the city of maplewood as maplewood developed you know unfortunately more and more runoff and so you have to be able to go in and make sure that we don't erode away the whole southern end of the city by making improvements and making sure that we're treating that water properly so just those projects are total somewhere in the neighborhood of ten million dollars of investment through the watershed and their partners into the city of maplewood and so we look forward as we go forward to the continued partnership that we will have with them because unfortunately the work is not done there's always more to do and so to some degree i tell people that i consider the human race to be really hard on the earth we tend to go in and do things if you look at the you know back when highway thirty five it was built there is a lake that's kind of up in the low it can be area that the freeway goes right through the middle of well you know those are the kind of things that seem like a workable at the time but now we're going back and trying to retrofit and make things work and protect our environment and so i just wanted to make sure that i came today to make sure that you were aware of how important a partner not only to the city of maplewood but to all of the other cities that are involved in the water shut that the water should district is and i would just hope that you would get a large round of applause for them because we would not be able to do what we do without their help thanks  good morning this is truly an exciting day and i just want to a little bit books to talk about the environmental aspects of this which are incredible a little bit of history is fires ramsey county ramsey county is the smallest county geographically in the state of minnesota we are the most densely populated and we are the only county that is considered fully developed so this type of project is so critical to our environmental future for generations to come and i can tell you that i'm bringing my two and a half year old grandson back here this afternoon so that he can see this and and run around and have a great time because to me the environmental aspects of this are so important as i said but the other part that's important here is the educational opportunity because as cliff said each of us has who no matter where we are has an impact on the water within our area and so this is also a reminder to people that they are empowered to make changes and to do things in their own backyard front yard that will have an impact on the environment and i mean this is absolutely incredible and i think i know that people are bringing their kids here but the thing is you actually can come even as adults but you know having a child with you makes it more acceptable i guess but to me what maybe would  has done the others conservation district market is here city council members everyone has really come together to make this work i see chuck we hear there's lots of elected officials who are here and i know that i'm going to get in trouble because i'm going to forget them but i just want you to know that the partnership is what makes this all possible and what we are doing in the long run is we are protecting the environment and we're educating people making them aware and empowering them to make change positive change for the environmental future of ramsey county so thank you very much this project both those grants totaled one point seven five million we also worked with p c a to receive a storm water revolving loan of one point two million so it has been a big partner in this project along with the board and so resources which  misunderstand forty years ago for those of you who weren't around congress passed then the president did not sign but congress overrode his veto for the clean water act clean water act is the source of a lot of the beginnings of cleaning up our waters nation why forty years ago there were rivers on fire there were sludge madson rivers in st paul in minneapolis there was pollution everywhere in our agency the pollution control agency came together after action of the of the state legislature to address that and this is one of the projects that we're very proud to support the clean water act was so i gave states a a lot of authority to take regulatory actions all the things that we did to fix our sewers and those of you who remember the days of having streets dug up all over our communities to clean up our sewers and our storm sewer runoff our sanitary sewer runoff i have resulted in cleaning up our rivers now we're into the next level of cleaning up our waters in this state and this is a great example of how we're going to be doing that it takes the action of responsible business owners communities all over the state governor davis as is a supporter of our business community as you know he wants to see minnesota's business thrive he wants people to thrive in a fair way and he wants to see the environment protected in re stored in this is a great great project to show how that can be done cliff talked a little bit of a coalmine lake and let me say what this project does for coleman lake on personal terms i'm maplewood resident i enjoy these lakes and i know that all of us who live here want clean water for our for our kids for our families for our future so we can fish so we can vote so we can recreate coleman lake has too much phosphorus phosphorus gets in lakes from the stuff that run off our streets it comes from leaves grass clippings and a lot of other junk that gets into the water that water then gets into the lakes and all that phosphorous sits there and we have to find a way to let the phosphorous get used by the plants in that lake without adding more and more phosphorous all the time so what this project does it helps put coleman lake on a diet it's like a phosphorus diet we have to lower the amount of phosphorous going into the lake so that the lake will use up the phosphorous that's already there and when that phosphorous is used up then the lake will stop being green generally that's a simple way of looking at it the phosphorous helps the algae bloom and  what makes the water green so we are very pleased and proud as i said to support this project thank you to cliff he's been a great colleague and friend for many years and to all the other partners we're so pleased to be a part of this great project thanks we received a grant for phase two which was this portion of northeast portion of the mall you know also a portion of our fees for funding for a total of one point one million dollars so that's great marcy's the clean water specialist with good morning at the half of the minnesota board of water and salute resources i'd like to welcome everyone for coming in today i am proud to be here to celebrate this project the board of water and solar resources has a mission to improve and protect minnesota's waters by working in partnerships with local organizations in private landowners and that's exactly as you have heard but maplewood miles all about public private partnerships to ensure cleaner water as a result maplewood mall has gotten greener there is a paradigm shift occurring in storm water management and the importance of trees and green infrastructure has become increasingly more evident yet as you sit here well you see it's not common and i would dare to say it's groundbreaking the parking lot i think you are sitting and will be a showcase not only for minnesota but for communities across the nation you've heard this project is unique it's unique not only in its size and its scope but also in the partnerships that were nurtured to make it a successful clean water is so vital to all of us in our communities the ramsey washington metro watershed district tackles water policy issues head on and coleman lake is just one example using  science they identified the pollution sources too commonly and now they are targeting those areas where we'll see the biggest improvements this project within sound science and technological components will make coleman like cleaner the watershed district also work with the communities local artist in the mall to create interactive educational displays that will help explain why this project was important and how it was in competition but more importantly it will educate visitors of the all of the impacts stormwater has on their lives and how they can work is individuals to help clean our waters in closing the kinds of projects that are real and lasting are those that use sound  science partnerships in clean water and stimulate more of the same you've heard the watershed district implements many projects and they do and when we get public private and local and state interest operating in partnerships we see long lasting results and results that the state is proud to fund and i would like to commend of the washington metro watershed district for inst instigating this innovative project to improve the environment thank you and as was the other simon corporate office people from indianapolis which we have many meetings but they have been a model of what several people have mentioned just as this public private partnership and i have used that term over the years of never this is necessary but this is one of the first examples of a really truly public private partnership that's really been effectively completed in this you know major project and i think it's going to be a big gamble in the future  welcome to maplewood mall and thank you to everybody coming out today it's amazing to look at this property now both inside and out and know what it looked like a few years ago on what we see today wouldn't be possible without the commitment and cooperation of several people as the largest public you have asked real estate company simon salmon street in a consistent commitment to sustain ability of corporate responsibility so when the district approached simon property group about our willingness to participate in a retrofit project the vision of what you see now was started as you look around and you see the stunning rainwater gardens the beautiful trees the plaza they were on right now at the unique cistern and learn about how this project actually functions what you are really seeing his collaboration imagination and dedication to the overall goals of the districts the innovation of this particular project should serve as a model for other businesses they're looking for ways to protect the environment pretty group everybody of our vital instruction at the event here for the last couple of years as somebody mentioned earlier we were lucky that they were the opener this year they kind of already knew how to put up with everything at the mall some think you got to fight for everything and i like to say typically what the quality of water coming off the street in a parking lot is and we know what the effectiveness of various kyunki is on netflix but in this case we also are monitoring we have monitoring units set up at several different locations around them anything just think about the weather we've been having it's been a very dry summer and you know we don't when it does rain we want to capture that water and get it to store into the ground as opposed to just drain it it quickly off to a wetland where it isn't go any good we need that water up in our land here's a rain gardens are doing exactly that they're taking this water that would have gone down to the wetlands and coleman lake and it gets dirty you know running off all these these hard surfaces it collects the dust in the grease and the oil it's dirty water when it leaves here if we can get it to go into this shallow depression and soak into the ground that the plants in the soil filters it and cleans out water and then if it overflows and it's clean when it overflows we've accomplished a lot i think this is a very exciting project it's not only from an environmental aspect with a three hundred seventy five trees you know the storm water the sister and the educational value of all of this i think is really what is very very important because beyond today individuals are going to come here they're going to be educated and they're going to know that there are things that they can do in their own backyard or front yard this case to make sure that the water quality for generations to come is much better in this case this is all about i mean this goes to coleman like which right now has too much phosphorus and as the commissioner of the p c a said this morning they're putting coleman lake on a diet and keeping the fast for us out of there and that will mean of course that the algae won't bloom as much and the lake will not be as green and ultimately it's just going to be a great learning experience and a great environmental experience as well so i think this is incredibly exciting the public private partnership truly a public private partnership with all of the with the state and with the county and the city of maplewood the watershed district the conservation board and p c a hauser everyone really came together to make this happen so five years seems like a long time but you know what when you've got a project that is this big and this impactful it's really a pretty short period of time beautiful day you know just enjoying the weather and then you know you know i learn things out here that you know it is it's it's really important just not now but we're talking about for the future you know to to get to that point you know it has started now so it's something for my kids and my grandkids and so on and so on so it's really mor