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shallow areas have vegetation composed primarily of reed canary <br />grass and a few isolated cattail stands. The portion of the ditch with <br />steeper banks has very sparse reed canary grass at the bottom of the <br />ditch and exposed banks. The wetland has been identified as the top of <br />the bank for the entire drainage ditch. This is a conservative estimate <br />under the assumption that surface and groundwater to not saturate the <br />soils to the top of the bank under normal conditions. Hydraulic <br />calculations on the existing drainage ditch support this assumption <br />(Appendix F). <br />Wetland soils on the eastern half of the property are either a mucky <br />silty clay in are *s with little or no flow to sandy accumulations were <br />the ditch h^ flowing water. Upland areas on the eastern half of the <br />property are composed of dark (10YR2/2) silty clay loams. The banks <br />along the ditch are steep and have becomes exposed and unstable. <br />Hydrology was observed within the ditch as flowing water or saturated <br />soils. On the banks and m the upland areas, hydrology within the top <br />20 inches was not observed. <br />Routine Onsite Delineation Method field datasheets for the wetland <br />delineation are included in Appendix C. Photographs of the impacted <br />wetland are included in Appendix D. <br />Sequencing <br />Alternatives <br />Alternatives for this project are limited. The no-build alternative was <br />considered, but not accepted. The fire station is considered an <br />essential service and must be located within quick access of the cities <br />ser\ed and be convenient to the existing volunteer firefighters. This <br />property is the only available site found to be suitably located for <br />setA’ice to the communities and with access to major transportation <br />corridors. <br />A second alternative was to rotate the building 90 degrees so that it <br />would be perpendicular to Willow Drive. This was not accepted for <br />numerous reasons, including reduced response time by not having <br />direct access to Willow Drive. It was also determined that rotating the <br />building would not reduce wetland impacts. Because the fire trucks <br />must pull through the bays, the amount of driveway lot space required <br />to make the turns into the building would impact the same amount of <br />wetland. <br />Backing the fire trucks into the bays poses major traffic safety <br />concerns as the trucks would be blocking Willow Drive. Because of <br />poor sight lines caused by the bridge over the Burlington Northern <br />Railroad north of the property, any alternative that involved trucks <br />backing up on Willow Drive was rejected. <br />Minnehaha Creek Watershed Oistnct Permit Application <br />City of Orono. Minnesota <br />A-LONGL0204.00 <br />Page 5