09-11-1979 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

� . Page 6 OVERVIEW Orono and surrounding towns have a rich, interwoven history dating back to the post Civil War period. First to arrive were farmers who cleared land and broke soil on hillsides bordering the Big Woods. They established trading centers that would grow into the towns of Wayzata, Long Lake, � and Maple Plain. Next came the city-folk, building cabins along the shores of Lake Minnetonka. Their informal lakeside lifestyle was a welcome retreat from City heat. �; 4 Together, these pioneers set a pattern that has lasted a hundred years. Along the lake, Orono acquired an urban character of closely spaced homes while areas away from the Lake have remained rural with generous amounts of open space. Services for both areas continue to be provided in the traditional town centers. The people of Orono though of diverse interests have drawn together by a slow-paced lifestyle and quiet amenities. Their common tie is a commitment to maintain those attractions. Lake Minnetonka is the most visible example. In the 1950 ' s increasing urbanization all around Lake Minnetonka threatened to environmentally "kill" the Lake by uncontrolled discharge of nutrients. First, lake area municipalities beg�n extending sewer systems to eliminate individual septic system discharges, but by 1968, lake water quality was still diminishing. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, together with the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District, commissioned a study of lake pollution. Completed in 1971, the Harza Study found that this nutrient input, particularly phosphorus, was being generated from two principal sources: the seven municipal sewage treatment plants and urban storm water runoff. The first pollution source, sewage outflow, has been systematically eliminated by multimillion dollar construction of sewer -interceptors to remove effluent from' the watershed. But storm water run�ff is a different matter. Unlike point-source sewage pollution, there is no practical way to artificially collect or treat non-point source storm water pollution. - Lake Minnetonka is fed by neither spring nor tributary. �The sole replenishment comes from storm water runoff from the watershed, of which over 1/3 flows from or through Orono. Lake Minnetonka, second on�y to Lake Michigan in this region, has an extremely long 25-year flush-out period. This means that careful and continuous attention < < must be given to the quality of runoff into the Lake. Thus, various study recommendations that the natural system of wetlands and marshes be forever protected and preserved as the only practical, economic method of filtering nutrients from storm water r�noff.