New Development: Rediscovering Hydropower

From HydroWorld:

In downtown Minneapolis, workers are putting the finishing touches on a new 10-MW hydroelectric project that will begin generating power early this year for customers of Xcel Energy.

The site next to the Lower Saint Anthony Falls Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River hasn't been used to generate power since 1987, when a turn-of-the-century powerhouse failed due to sandstone erosion. Efforts to resume hydropower production with conventional technologies were deserted because the economics and technology were deemed unpractical.

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Saint Anthony Falls

Historic home to the original Pillsbury and Washburn (General Mills) flour mills, Saint Anthony Falls was the only natural major waterfall on the Upper Mississippi River. The natural falls were replaced by a concrete overflow apron after it partially collapsed in 1869.

From the Historic Mill District of Minneapolis.

Thoughtful Responses to Minneapolis Riverfront Design Survey

From Mill City Times:

The Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition conducted a survey of Minneapolis residents on their thoughts and hopes for the Minneapolis Riverfront.  It was a rather long survey (I participated) covering a wide range of topics.  The survey results have been posted, and what struck me while reading the report was the time people spent giving detailed, meaningful answers.  There is passion for the future of our river, and I hope the jury for the design competition takes the time to thoroughly review what the respondents had to say.  The people behind the scenes of this competition are doing a great job so far.

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On the Commons: the Mississippi River as a Public Good

From River Talk:

You won't find many who are nostalgic for the 1970s--that hair!  Those clothes!
But one thing I miss from the 1970s is a sense of things that we shared as a community, and our common responsibilities to protect and steward the things that made all of our lives richer.  I saw this a lot in planning for public spaces, in resource management planning and design projects.  There was a sense that there was an "us" and that, together, we could protect and enhance places that we shared in common.

Like the Mississippi River, for example.

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Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition set for Jan. 27

From KARE 11:

The Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition challenges four landscape and urban design teams to each create an over-arching vision for five and half miles of Mississippi riverfront from the Stone Arch Bridge to the city's northern limits.

Built on the Park Board's award-winning 2,000 master plan and addressing current demands as well as future needs, the winning design will be a comprehensive, integrated vision for the Upper Riverfront that establishes parks as the engine for economic development, transforms the river into a connector rather than a barrier between east and west banks, and refocuses Minneapolis toward what is one of the three great rivers of the world.

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Early Morning Minneapolis Riverfront

Downtown Minneapolis as shot from Nicollet Island. Reflections are courtesy of the Mississippi River.

Register for Snowshoeing at Boom Island Park this Saturday

From Mill City Times: 

This Saturday, January 22, from 10:00am-11:30am, you can snowshoe at Boom Island and check out the Mississippi River.  See a winter wonderland that is difficult to reach in the deep snow.  Watch for winter wildlife as you tromp through drifts. Snowshoes provided.

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DNR Misses Deadline on Mississippi Corridor Rules

From the Star Tribune: 

A year of work-group sessions, drafts, redrafts and heated debate on regulating development along the Mississippi River may have been for naught.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ordered by the Legislature to establish new rules for a 72-mile stretch of the river, missed a key deadline, meaning its authority to make the rules has expired.

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Saint Anthony Falls Lab, Where Water Meets the Future

From The Line:

When I was a kid I loved to go down to the local park after a heavy rain. Water running down to the river in the channels alongside a dirt path could be dammed up with mud--for a few minutes. But water is relentless and eventually it will find a way to squirt through and completely destroy your work. It was wonderful, dirty entertainment for an eight-year-old. After a summer thunderstorm, I could get in a good couple of hours of hydro-engineering.  

I had no idea there were grown-up people with jobs like that.  

Some of them work out in the channel of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis, in a boxcar-shaped building perched on the edge of St. Anthony Falls. They build river deltas, demolish dams, dig channels, and restore wetlands. And their next job is to help shape the future of renewable energy.

The building is the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, and Fotis Sotiropolous is its director. 

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Establishing New Design Guidelines that Blend Old and New in St. Anthony Falls Historic District

From The Line:

Over the past 30 years, the St. Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis, which testifies to the city's origin in milling and trade and includes the Mississippi River's main waterfall, has seen marked changes.

In response, the city is calling for professional services to help get new guidelines in place that are in keeping with the times and take a more holistic view of the area.

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