Via the St. Croix River Association:
Illustration courtesy Minnesota Department of Transportation
The St. Croix River Association will host a public water quality forum on May 14th covering water quality efforts that are part of work on the new bridge across the St. Croix River in Stillwater. The event will feature three representatives from the St. Croix Crossing project who are involved in water quality protection at the construction site.
“A lot of people have asked what protections are in place as the new bridge is being built,” said Deb Ryun, St. Croix River Association executive director. “We wanted to provide a forum for people to learn about what is required, who is the overseeing river protection measures, and have an opportunity to ask questions directly of those charged with river protection.”
St. Croix Crossing project representatives will discuss the project, including its history and an overview of construction activities, and Minnesota water quality and quantity on land and construction protection techniques.
“Water quality and the construction of the St. Croix Crossing Project”
May 14, 2014, 9 – 10 a.m.
St. Croix River Association office
230 S. Washington St., St. Croix Falls, MN 55084
Speakers:
Todd Clarkowski, P.E., St. Croix Crossing Project Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Transportation
As Project Coordinator, Todd is involved in the management of all phases of the project, including scoping, environmental documentation, design, construction, mitigation implementation, public involvement and agency coordination for items such as permitting. Todd has a civil engineering background.
Jennifer Hildebrand, Environmental Compliance Group Manager, WSB & Associates, Inc.
Jennifer has represented private and public clients in the storm water industry throughout the United States and several Canadian Provinces. She has made it her goal to educate and inform these markets regarding compliance program principles and proper installation techniques. Recently, Jennifer authored a top-selling industry publication, “Straight Talk: Strategies for Environmental Compliance”.
Matt Wassman, Water Resources Engineer
Matt has 19 years of experience serving a broad range of client types including private, state, county, municipal and rail. He specializes in water resources engineering design. His experience encompasses hydrologic and hydraulic modeling; highway drainage design, including storm sewer, culvert, waterway and pond design; erosion and sediment control design; Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans; bridge hydraulics; wetland mitigation and replacement plans; permitting; and preparation of final construction plans and specifications. Matt is currently serving as the lead Water Resources Engineer for the St. Croix Approach Design-Build Project.
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It is ironic that representatives of the bridge construction process are lecturing us on river preservation with respect to the bridge. Their need for a massive span, largest in Minnesota and entirely unnecessary in a protected river valley, was so great they had to design piers that sat in the middle of the largest bed of native river mussells in the World. They previously told us those mussells would be moved carefully even though the prospect of transplanting native mussells likely left very few living. They have created a river pollution night mare for which they are responsible. The very pollutants that landed St. Croix Lake on the impaired waters state list are expanded exponentially with the concrete roadways proliferating around the bridge. Raparian pathways are destroyed by huge swaths of ramps, holding ponds, new highways and the ever expanding thirst for adjacent development of suburban sprawl, creating an exponential increase of pollutants and the necessity of keeping them from the river. The people and agencies most responsible for weakening the protections of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act all over the country are lecturing us in environmental protection. The real pollution has been unleashed and the modern methods of storm water pollution prevention are but a band aid on a progression that is now uncontrollable. It is difficult for many of us to even look at the desecration of the river valley that has summoned developers to our city and county. Shame on the DOT and their propoganda ambassadors for their hubris.
If you think all that construction equipment will be entering Lake St. Croix with absolutely clean hulls and no zebra mussells you’re wrong. The liklihood of a major zebra mussell invasion from equipment contamination right on top of that incredibly unique indigenous mussell community is very high. I weep for the damage this project will inflict on the river, the valley, the protections afforded under the WSRA and the heritge of our fair city. None of what this forum is about will have any impact on the real degredation they are unleashing on this pristine valley.