Adopt and implement guidelines or design standards/incentives for at least one of the following stormwater infiltration/reuse practices:
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
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Install, require and/or provide guidelines for rain gardens, rain barrels, parking lots (salt use reduction/alternatives, French drains, etc.) or pervious pavement at sites where the practice was not implemented to satisfy a requirement in an NPDES/SDS MS4 permit and/or Construction Stormwater permit or Industrial Stormwater permit; report that all city staff are developing guidelines that use the updated precipitation data in Atlas 14 or better, future predicted precipitation; note required use of compost as a soil amendment. |
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Support an educational/action-oriented landscaping for water quality program; install, require, incentivize and/or provide guidelines for green roofs, cisterns, neighborhood water storage, rainwater harvesting to supplant irrigation with drinking water, and other stormwater reuse. Promote/incentivize compost use in soils, green roofs, rain gardens, native plant landscapes, etc.; use MnDOT compost specification 3890 for soil amendments in parks, boulevards, stormwater installations. Report storage and reuse of stormwater for golf course/parkland irrigation under BPA 18.5c. |
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Have an ongoing retrofit program to reduce pollutant loads and stormwater volume from existing neighborhoods that requires one or more of the stormwater practices in this action; aim for zero stormwater discharge in development projects; target implementation of green infrastructure projects in low-income neighborhoods; incorporate compost in all applicable projects to decrease pollutant levels and stormwater impacts. Report requirements for post-construction soil reclamation under BPA 16.5. |
Resources
- Clean Water Partnership loan funds at 0% interest are available on an ongoing basis from the MPCA for city installation of, or re-loaning to others for, green infrastructure and other types of projects that are called for in TMDLs, WRAPS, and/or local water plans. See also this funding programs page in the Minnesota Stormwater Manual. Note that you can search the Manual by topic (e.g., permeable pavement) to read the latest MN-specific information on topics such as best management practices, design, construction, maintenance and pollutant removal. Note that the MnDOT compost specification 3890 (p. 715) is recommended as a soil amendment for landscape planting and turf establishment purposes. One design practice Eagan requires is that sites adding 10,000 sq. ft. or more of disturbed/graded/compacted soils must assure 5% organic matter remains, typically by adding compost so the soils allow water infiltration.
- See USCC Factsheet: Using Compost in Stormwater Management for ideas and guidance on using compost in rain and infiltration gardens, infiltration zones, green roofs, and erosion control. Additional specifications for compost stormwater management can be found on the US Composting Council website. Virginia DCR offers useful information on compost use specifications for rain gardens and infiltration areas with diagrams for potential rain garden designs.
- See the City of Eagan’s Post-construction Stormwater Management Requirements (Sec. 4.34 F.) for sites with over 10,000 SF land disturbance.
- See U.S. EPA green infrastructure resources, the Green Infrastructure Toolkit (Georgetown Climate Center: 2016), and NOAA Atlas 14, Volume 8, which provides precipitation frequency estimates for Minnesota. These estimates (analyses of the historical frequency of heavy rainfall events) are the most up-to-date and must be used by engineers and others involved in designing and operating grey and green stormwater infrastructure.
- Green Infrastructure Opportunities that Arise During Municipal Operations (US EPA: 2015) is a comprehensive, visual, readable document detailing approaches that local government officials and municipal program managers in small to midsize communities can use to incorporate green infrastructure components into work they are doing in public spaces.
- The Green Infrastructure Toolkit (Georgetown Climate Center, 2016) provides strategies and techniques that manage stormwater, reduce urban heat island effects, improve air quality, and promote economic development and other sustainability goals.
- Low Impact Development (LID) Barrier Busters fact sheets from the US EPA are intended for local decision makers who are considering adoption of LID techniques but who have concerns. LID includes a variety of practices that mimic or preserve natural drainage processes to manage stormwater.
- See, for example, Inver Grove Height's national award-winning low-impact development of Agenta Hills. It aims for zero stormwater discharge and cuts capital and operations/maintenance costs 70% over 30 years compared to a conventional 'pump and pipe' stormwater system. Note also that Maplewood has budgeted rain gardens as part of all street reconstruction work since 1996.
- See Landscaping with Native Plants for guidance on when and when not to incorporate compost into native plant establishments to achieve greatest success. Compost is useful in smothering existing plants, increasing fertility, and suppressing weed growth in native plant landscapes.
- See archived resources from the Minnesota Green Roofs Council and current resources from the national organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which include a green roof energy calculator.
- See guidance for stormwater reuse and rainwater harvesting in the MN Stormwater Manual. See work done by Water in Motion to redesign existing stormwater ponds at 2 golf courses in Woodbury so that the irrigation systems could reuse runoff water from the adjacent road to water the golf course greens instead of pumping groundwater from the aquifer below. See also reuse projects and data from the City of Hugo.
- In 2008 a 10,000 gallon cistern for the purpose of reusing rainwater was installed at the Minneapolis City Hall as part of a greenroof system.
- See examples of pervious (porous) concrete, asphalt and porous pavers in the well-illustrated Chicago Green Alley Handbook (2010) and alley typologies and commercial design interventions in Green Alleys in South Park: Visioning Report (Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative: 2014). See also related heat-island resources (GreenStep action 29.6).
- Note that pervious concrete use in roadways both reduces stormwater infrastructure and salt use, with Shorewood as a national exemplar.
- See 'Greening Surface Parking Lots' (City of Toronto: 2013) and the Green Parking Lot Resource Guide (U.S. EPA: 2008). Guidelines include performance standards, such as 50% tree coverage of a lot at 15 years.
- Light-colored, high-albedo materials and/or an open-grid pavement with a minimum Solar Reflective Index of 0.6 over at least 30% of a site's hardscapped area are recommended. See Using Cool Pavements to Reduce Heat Islands (U.S. EPA).
- See State and Federal Funding Programs and Practices for Soil Health (BWSR, 2020)
Sublist
a. Rain gardens/infiltration practices.
b. Rainwater harvesting practices.
c. Green alleys or green parking lots.
d. Pervious/permeable pavement or pavers.
e. Green roofs / green walls.
f. Tree trenches / tree boxes.
g. Incorporate compost and/or native plants into landscape design.
Order Number
5
Action Type
Finite