This year on Earth Day members of our community came out to pick up the trash around Lake of the Isles. In all, 63 adults and 12 children helped pick up 160 gallons of trash in one day. That’s incredible! Thank you to Ellen van Iwaarden, the East Isles Green Team chair, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and everyone else who helped make this happen.
Since May 2022, members of our group have collected over 3,500 gallons of trash — 1,135 gallons of those from Lake of the Isles, including 104 syringes.
In that time, I’ve learned a lot about how trash enters our lakes. Put simply, trash flows directly off the streets into storm drains which then empty unfiltered into our lakes. A simple solution is to pick up the trash before it enters the storm drains.
Another problem is less visible: salt and excess nutrients entering the lake. The solution here is to rethink our habits. Just one teaspoon of salt permanently pollutes five gallons of water. An alternative to salt is chicken grit, also known cherry grit, which is crushed gravel that provides traction on ice and causes zero harm to the environment.
Also consider ending or limiting the use of fertilizer on our lawns and in our gardens. These nutrients run off into storm sewers and into the lakes, causing algal blooms that are smelly, toxic and suffocate fish. The same goes for toxic weed killers and pesticides. What you spray in your yard doesn’t stay in your yard.
From studying maps of storm drains and street sweeping schedules, I’ve determined that the much of the trash is coming from the streets around Hennepin Avenue. Cars crush the trash along the curbs, which allows it to slip easily through the grates and then make its way to the lakes. The upcoming Hennepin Avenue reconstruction includes a storm drain system that addresses this problem and should help keep urban litter from ending up in urban lakes.
How can we “think upstream” and organize effectively to stop trash from entering the lakes? The city’s Adopt-a-Drain program encourages neighbors to keep storm grates clean, and to cut back or end the use of ice-melting salt and phosphorous-rich fertilizers. You can learn more by Googling “City of Minneapolis” and “Adopt-a-Drain.”
The East Isles Neighborhood Association, along with the park board and the Department of Public Works, is working on solutions. Our area Park Board Commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer has suggested installing a boom around the Euclid culvert outflow to catch the trash before it spreads all over the lake. If the park board agrees to install the boom, East Isles has agreed to fund it.
East Isles has also started a monthly trash collection drive and welcomes more volunteers. (To sign up, see the links below.) We are applying for grants from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization and will also apply for Hennepin County grants to help fund neighborhood initiatives to make a difference. The other neighborhood associations in the Hill & Lake Press coverage area are on board with these efforts.
Together we can make a difference and help save our beautiful lakes. If you want to help or just know more, please check out these resources: ‘Friends of Lake of the Isles’ Facebook group; eastisles.org neighborhood news; or feel free to email me at cleanlakesmpls@gmail.com!
