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Sweeney Lake Total Maximum Daily Load Study
Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission
in Partnership with the City of Golden Valley, Minnesota

About the Project

Sweeney Lake is a 67-acre water body within the City of Golden Valley. Sweeney Lake has a contributing drainage area of approximately 2,360 acres that is essentially fully-developed. The watershed boundaries are located primarily in Golden Valley, but also extend to portions of St. Louis Park. Sweeney Lake has been subject to fairly extensive previous study including a Watershed and Lake Management Plan completed for the Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission (Barr Engineering, 1994) and water quality monitoring dating back to at least 1977. Recommendations of the 1994 Plan were established in two phases: Phase 1 included shutting the aeration system down and monitoring lake response along with implementation of several watershed-wide BMPs (i.e., wet detention basins for new and redevelopment projects; phosphorus fertilizer ban; education efforts; and ordinance enforcement).

The City of Golden Valley’s annual pavement management program serves to repair and upgrade degraded streets and/or utilities throughout the City. One of the recent efforts was the streets within the Sweeney Lake watershed. Specifically, the City completed a drainage plan improvement effort and extensive public input process for the first segment of street reconstruction projects in the Sweeney Lake watershed. The intent and goal of the drainage study was to identify locations and types of best management practices (BMPs) that could be installed as part of the pavement management program and achieve improvements in water quality treatment in the Sweeney Lake watershed. The second segment is schedule for 2014.

Sweeney Lake was a 2004 “new” listing in the Final EPA-Approved MPCA 2004 CWA 303(d) List of Impaired Waters. Sweeney Lake is listed as impaired due to excess nutrients (i.e., phosphorus) with a target start and completion schedule fro the TMDL study of 2009/2012. The City of Golden Valley and Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission were interested in accelerating the schedule for the TMDL to be positioned to begin improvement efforts and activities prior to the target completion date of 2012. By completing the study now, the City and Watershed also gain the ability to incorporate implementation projects and activities into other public works projects within the watershed.

The overall goal of this study is to identify the sources of phosphorus loading to the lake from both internal and external sources and to develop an implementation plan that puts the lake on track to be removed form the impaired waters list. The details of the implementation plan will be developed through an open process that obtains input from all project stakeholders, including local residents, neighboring municipalities and MnDOT.

Sweeney Lake
Total Maximum
Daily Load Study

About the Project

Project and Work Plan Schedule

Public Information/Comment Page

Project Updates

Project Contacts and Links

Documents and Data

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Funding for Phase 1 of this project was provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency from the Section 319 NonPoint Source Management Fund of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 USC 1329, CFDA66.460

Funding for Phase 2 of this project was provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency from the State of Minnesota, Clean Water Legacy Act Funds.