City Considers Water Quality Incentive Program

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For years, Eagan city officials have been making strides to improve the water quality of local lakes and watersheds, and now they want to get private residents, organizations and businesses in on the act, too.

The water resources wing of Eagan's Public Works Department is developing an incentive program to encourage certain private property owners in Eagan to build rain gardens, shoreline buffer strips and pervious parking lots in an effort to reduce runoff.

If approved, the program may allocate as much as $50,000 annually to assist property owners with runoff reduction costs, according to Eagan Water Resources Manager Eric Macbeth. That money would likely be drawn from the city's storm water utility fees that it collects from property owners and combined with private investment from landowners in a cost-sharing deal to pay for runoff reduction improvements, Macbeth said.

Financial incentives for private property owners would likely help the city combat runoff in problematic areas and raise awareness for water quality issues, Macbeth said.

Macbeth plans to target larger property owners in priority watersheds in the city, and has already had preliminary conversations with and , among others.

When selecting potential partners for the incentive program, the city would also consider the public exposure of a proposed runoff reduction project, Macbeth added. For example, a rain garden project at a local school could be used to educate students about water quality.

"The more people we expose to and educate about this, the more we figure we can’t lose," Macbeth said.

The city's priority watersheds were identified in a 2007 Water Quality and Wetland Management Plan, which identified high-priority watersheds based on the level public use, existing water quality and other factors. Only one of the city's 22 locally managed lakes is listed as impaired for pollutants by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, but many other watersheds in the city are at risk of impairment, according to Macbeth. High priority lakes include Fish, Blackhawk, Thomas and Schwanz Lakes, among others.

Funding for the proposed incentive program is included in , which will likely come before the Eagan City Council for approval on Tuesday evening. But even if funding for the incentive plan is approved, Macbeth said other details about the program may need subsequent approval by the council.

Many of the plan's details—including the application process for property owners looking for city assistance—still need to be worked out, Macbeth said. The money would likely be distributed in the form of grants, Macbeth added.