Chief's Coulee Stormwater Project
Chief's Coulee has been a notoriously polluted stormwater channel in northern Thief River Falls. Many samples have had E. coli bacteria concentrations that were too high for the lab to count. Totals suspended solids, total phosphorus, biochemical oxygen demand are other parameters that have been extraordinarily high along this channel. One 2015 sample was diluted ten times by the lab...and the E. coli bacteria were still too numerous to count! The pollution is particularly concerning because it discharges upstream of the city's drinking water intake. There are also concerns with drainage along the channel as it has become clogged with cattails, garbage, and sediment (the issue that prompted the initial 2015 investigation of the drainage area).
Some progress has been made in reducing septic leakages and other discharges and spillages. However, concentrations of pollutants remain much higher than what is typically found in area streams and ditches.
The City of Thief River Falls and the Red Lake Watershed District partnered to plan a project that will help limit and filter pollution inputs to the channel by putting much of it underground. Best management practices will be implemented in agricultural land that drains to the channel. Hydrodynamic separator structures, like those installed at the Thief River Falls Oxbow Restoration Project, will be installed to filter pollutants from water that is flowing through the system. Surface inlet best management practices will be installed to filter runoff before it enters the stormwater system. Curbs in the drainage area of Chief's Coulee will be stenciled to remind people that water that goes into those drains flow to the river, which is relied upon by people and aquatic life.
Funding for the $2.3 million project comes from the City of Thief River Falls, Red Lake Watershed District, a Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources Clean Water Fund Grant, Red River Watershed Management Board, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant, and Red Lake River Watershed Based Implementation Funding (a portion of the design costs).
