Hiawatha Golf Course at lower elevation than Lake Hiawatha

The hundreds of local residents who packed inside the Lake Nokomis Community Center on Tuesday night, Sept. 15, expected to be sharing their opinions on three concepts for the Hiawatha Golf Course.

Instead, they learned that everything at the golf course is currently on hold.

Photo right: When asked who in the room golfed, a show of hands went up in the Lake Nokomis Recreation Center. A few hundred people attended a meeting on Sept. 15, to discuss the future of the Hiawatha Golf Course. Many there pushed for the continuance of 18 rounds of golf and warned that if the course were remade as 9-holes many wouldn’t be interested in playing there anymore.

On Sept. 11, the city of Minneapolis shared information with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) from a preliminary study that shows groundwater issues at the golf course.

It suggests that 273.6 million gallons of groundwater are being pumped from the golf course each year.

This pumped water is not from a rainstorm or water running into the course from the city’s stormwater system. Nor is it water coming from Minnehaha Creek on the south side. Instead,this is shallow groundwater that exists on the site, always sitting just beneath the ground surface.

“The volume of groundwater being pumped from this site to enable a game to be played is shocking, and will take time to process and understand,” stated MPRB District 5 Commissioner Steffanie Musich.

“No doubt like many of you, I am still struggling to understand what this means for the course and this project as a whole.”

MPRB has been working to improve the golf course with plans to complete the project in 2016. Part of the work was to be paid for by $1.2 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds following storm damage in the summer of 2014,  the worst damage at the course since 1987.

Photo left: Michael Schroeder

The back nine holes at the golf course have been closed since the flooding. They will remain closed, so FEMA funding is not jeopardized by doing any work there, said Assistant Superintendent of Planning Michael Schroeder.

Water may limit use at site

While MPRB had considered canceling the Sept. 15 public meeting, they chose to share this new information with attendees and answer questions as the staff was able, according to Schroeder.

Initial data shows that the infiltration rate at one of the five ponds at the Hiawatha Golf Course is 1.16 cubic foot per second (CFS). While Schroeder acknowledged that one cubic foot per second seems small, it becomes concerning when you add up how much that is per minute, per hour, day or year.

A dimensional analysis of this figure suggests that 273.6 million gallons of groundwater are being pumped off the course each year to make it playable. The pumps run constantly.

“That’s the number that concerns us,” said Schroeder.

He pointed out that amounts to 15-16 inches covering the entire 640-acre Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park.

Additionally, the study shows that the ponds are 4 feet lower than the water level of Lake Hiawatha.

The elevation of Lake Hiawatha is 812.2 feet, the fairways are at 810 feet, and the ponds are at 808 feet.

MPRB does not yet know whether the water levels would even out if they stopped pumping the groundwater from the ponds, but that is a question they are looking for an answer to, said Schroeder.

The golf course currently has a permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to pump 38.5 million gallons of groundwater to use to irrigate the golf course, which is far below how much is being pumped.

At nearby Lake Nokomis, the elevation level of the lake is higher than that of the ponds. When it rains, the ponds fill and then overflow into the lake, according to Musich.

They had assumed the same thing was happening at Lake Hiawatha.

“While the park planning process from the public view can seem unnecessarily cumbersome and long, ensuring that our planning process includes due diligence to validate assumptions uncovers issues and stumbling blocks early, allowing for a successful project in the long run for generations of Minneapolitans to come,” said Musich.

A holistic approach

When asked by attendees at the Sept. 15 meeting why this information was just discovered, Schroeder explained that part of its planning process for the Hiawatha Golf Course is involving the city of Minneapolis and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. Each entity has been compiling information and completing studies. MPRB received information from the city on the 11th that came from a consultant hired by the city.

This initial data, collected as part of a report expected to be presented to the Park Board and city in November, suggests that the groundwater volume is greater than previously understood and may pose limitations for how the golf course land can be used in the future.

“The future park and rec uses of this site are unknown, but I can assure you, this land will remain parkland even if golf is no longer a viable use of the space,” promised Musich.

It’s no longer just about how MPRB can accommodate golf, said Schroeder.

However, he assured the crowd that MPRB is still committed finding a way to accommodate golf as the primary activity at this site. That goal is in addition to also bettering the water ecology, addressing the trash coming in the city’s stormwater culvert on the north side, and including non-golf activities.

“We are trying to look at this in a very holistic way,” stated Schroeder, one that doesn’t waste millions of taxpayer dollars when the course floods again.

Several residents stressed that golfers won’t be interested in using Hiawatha unless it is an 18-hole course. Schroeder acknowledged that the city recognizes the viewpoint of golfers. He added that by simply reconfiguring the golf course, MPRB can deal with many of the water and trash issues, which earned a round of clapping from the crowd.

Schroeder also pointed out that 15% of the city’s population, or 60,000 people, golf, and the MPRB sees the value of this recreational use for residents.

“We’re trying to find a solution—as crazy as it might seem—to keep everybody happy,” said Schroeder.

Golf usage going back up

According to MPRB Director of Golf Keith Kainy, golf usage in Minneapolis has been rebounding since a nationwide low during the recession of 2008/09. He also pointed out that what astounds him is Hiawatha is one of the few golf courses he knows of that didn’t take a drop in rounds during the recession.

Photo left: Keith Kainy

Schroeder did note that the MPRB is making changes to ensure that its golf courses, including Meadowbrook farther upstream, are self-sustaining in the future. While 15 years ago, the city’s golf courses made $1,845,849, in 2013, they lost over half a million dollars, according to a report prepared last year by Golf Convergence for the Park Board.

Golf course useful for floodwater storage

Lake Hiawatha, originally called Rice Lake, was formerly a wetland. It was dredged in the 1920s to create a lake, and the golf course was built with the fill material.

Attendees at the Tuesday night meeting recalled swimming in the lake as children when it was 35 feet deep, compared to the 8-9-feet-deep it is now.

One resident suggested that the creek is adding too much sediment to the lake, and he advocated for blocking the lake off from Minnehaha Creek.

“You disconnect the creek from the lake, and you get a more polluted lake,” said Minnehaha Watershed District Board Vice President Brian Shekleton. He explained that if the pollution entering the lake from the city’s stormwater culvert had no way to leave the lake, it would get more concentrated.

Photo right: Brian Shekleton

Another resident suggested that the outflow be increased to allow more water to flow out of the lake.

Shekleton observed that this will result in basements flooding downstream, which is why the Watershed District was created 50 years ago to prevent.

“The golf course is a better place for flood waters to be stored than neighborhood streets,” said Schroeder.

Lisa Cerney, director of surface water and sewers for the Public Works Department in Minneapolis, stressed that “the groundwater is not new water to this system. It exists there already.”

Photo left: Lisa Cerney, director of surface water and sewers for the Public Works Department in Minneapolis, stressed that the groundwater being pumped from Hiawatha Golf Course is not new water to this system. “It exists there already,” she said. Currently, the ponds at the golf course are at a lower elevation than the lake. The ponds are at 808 feet, and the lake is at 812.

Shekleton remarked that they might be able to increase the storage capacity of the creek during storms by re-meandering it. This is what is being done upstream in Hopkins and St. Louis Park. By putting the creek back where it was in the 1920s and 30s, they are slowing the speed of the water to prevent sediment build-up and increasing the capacity to hold water from storms. Through various measures upstream, they will reduce stormwater run-off by one-third.

Can trash from streets be prevented?

Some at the meeting pushed for a solution to the trash problem around the city’s stormwater culvert on the north side, and asked that the MPRB allow neighborhood resident Sean McConnaughy to implement a short-term solution this fall. The stormwater culvert there drains the area south from Lake St.

Schroeder responded that he did not have an answer to that question.

What happens next?

MPRB will continue to solicit comments from community members about what they’d like to see at the golf course. Comment online at minneapolisparks.org/currentprojects.

After more data is collected, MPRB will hold another community meeting to share information. Schroeder expects that to be within the next 2 to 3 months.

Following that, MPRB will proceed with concept plans once more, and will know whether the timeline for work in 2016 is still feasible.