Water Quality – Shingle Creek

 

Shingle Creek 2-year 3-hour rain event

On August 19, 2009 the northern suburbs in the Shingle Creek watershed experienced a 2-year 3-hour rain event, receiving 1.8 inches in 3 hours.  On that day, Brooklyn Park City staff took photos of Shingle Creek at the Village Creek development between Zane and Regent Avenues at the height of the event and Wenck staff took photos a few hours after the event.  Since one of the Commission monitoring stations (SC-3) is just upstream of this development and the Crystal Airport rain gauge is nearby, this was a good opportunity to graphically and pictorially demonstrate stream “falshiness.”

 

One of the major difficulties in managing an urban stream is that they tend to be very responsive to precipitation events.  Storm sewers efficiently carry runoff to the stream, which rises rapidly.  The engineered shape of modified channels such as Shingle Creek conveys the stormwater rapidly downstream at high velocities.  The stream level falls nearly as rapidly as it rose, often with small secondary peaks as stormwater ponds and other storage areas discharge later in the event.  When the stream returns to much lower base flow, the engineered channel is usually overwide, and the stream depth can fall to only a few inches.

 

This “flashiness” can be destabilizing to streambanks.  It is also hard on aquatic organisms as they may have few natural refugia left to shelter them from the sudden increased stream flows.  Channels are engineered to efficiently carry high flows, and at low flows are very low or even dry.  The flashiness of urban runoff is one of the key stressors in most urban stream biotic TMDLs, including Shingle and Bass Creeks.

 

Figure 1 is a storm event hydrograph that shows streamflow and precipitation starting at about 10:00 a.m. on August 19 through 11:00 p.m.  Streamflow was recorded in cubic feet per second (cfs) at 15 minute intervals, and precipitation was recorded in inches per hour.  A light rain started falling in the late morning, with about 0.2 inches received in about three hours.  Flow started increasing in the Creek almost immediately, and the level logger at SC-3 shows a stream stage increase of about four inches.  As the storm grew in intensity, 0.42 inches of rain fell in the first hour (noon-1 p.m.), 0.94 inches in the second hour (1 p.m. – 2 p.m.), and 0.41 inches in the third hour (2 p.m. – 3 p.m.).  Streamflow increased from 4.7 cfs to 268 cfs in two hours, and stream stage rose another 3.4 feet.  After 3 p.m. the precipitation tapered off and streamflow fell, but stayed at about 20 cfs for the next few days as upstream ponds, wetlands, and other storage areas discharged.

 

Figures 1 - 5

 

 

Shingle Creek Corridor Study

The Corridor Study was undertaken to provide a coordinated vision for the future of Shingle Creek and its tributaries, a capital improvement plan that outlines projects for the restoration of Shingle Creek, and a program of management activities.  The study encompassed all of Shingle Creek in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park as well as Ryan Creek in Robbinsdale.

 

In 2005 the City of Brooklyn Park formally requested the Commission to draft a minor amendment to its Watershed Management Plan for the creek restoration project under design in that city.  The city has an ecological concept to restore the creek in the reach from Brooklyn Boulevard crossing west of Zane Avenue to the Hampshire Avenue footbridge.  With a low flow channel and native streambank plantings and remove the dam at Brooklyn Boulevard and replace it with rock vanes riffle/pool sequences.  Later, the City expanded the project to include the subreach of Hampshire to Candlewood Drive.  The study was approved by the Commission at its September 2005 meeting, where the Commission also adopted a resolution ordering the Shingle Creek Restoration Improvement project.  Construction began in 2006. 

 

 

Part 1. Executive Summary, Purpose & Methods, and Major Findings.

Part 2. Inventory and Stream Assessment

Part 3. Problems & Issues, Recommendations, Management Standards, and References

 

Appendix A. Stream Reach Detail

Part 1 Reaches 1 and 2                                                 

Part 2 Reaches 3 and 4

Part 3 Reaches 5 and 6                                                

Part 4 Reaches 7 and 8

Part 5 Reach 9                                                            

Part 6 Reach 10

 

 

Appendix B. Data Collection Forms

 

Appendix C. Figs. – Aerial Views of the Shingle Creek Corridor

 

Fig. 1. Reach 1 – 53rd to CR 10                                     

Fig. 2. Reach 2 – CR 10 to 61st

Fig. 3. Reach 2 – 61st to I-94/694                               

Fig. 4. Reach 3 – I-94 to 60th

Fig. 5. Reach 3 – 69th Ave to Palmer Lake                   

Fig. 6. Reach 4 – Palmer Lake

Fig. 7. Reach 4 – Palmer Lake to Xerxes                       

Fig. 8. Reach 5 – Xerxes to Noble (Lower Reach)

Fig. 9. Reach 5 – Xerxes to Noble (Middle Reach)        

Fig. 10. Reach 5 – Xerxes to Noble (Upper Reach)

Fig. 11. Reach 5 – Noble to Brooklyn Blvd                     

Fig. 12. Reach 6 – Brooklyn Blvd to Regent

Fig. 13. Reach 6 – Regent to Unity                               

Fig. 14. Reach 6 – Unity to Zane

Fig. 15. Reach 6 – Zane to Brooklyn Blvd                      

Fig. 16. Reach 7 – Brooklyn Blvd to Hampshire

Fig. 17. Reach 7 – Hampshire to Candlewood                

Fig. 18. Reach 6 – Candlewood to Broadway

Fig. 19. Reach 7 – Broadway to CSAH 81                      

Fig. 20. Reach 8 – CSAH 81 to Brooklyn Blvd

Fig. 21. Reach 8 – Brooklyn Blvd to 73rd                                  

Fig. 22. Reach 8 – 73rd to I-94/694

Fig. 23. Reach 9 – Ryan Outlet to Shingle Creek                      

Fig. 24. Reach 9 – 49th to Ryan Lake

Fig. 25. Reach 10 – Ryan Lake                                      

Fig. 26. Reach 10 – Ryan Lake to France

Fig. 27. Reach 10 – France to Twin Lake

 

Creek Management Standards

Part 1              

Part 2

 

Implementation Plan