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Zoo seeks clean water funds

Published (4/3/2009)
By Sue Hegarty
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The Minnesota Zoo is requesting $1.5 million from the state’s Clean Water Fund to permanently improve the water quality of its central lake, which serves as a breeding ground for trumpeter swans.

HF2066, sponsored by Rep. Tara Mack (R-Apple Valley), would appropriate the money to make drainage improvements caused by “classic urban runoff,” Zoo Director Lee Ehmke told the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division March 31.

The bill was laid over for possible consideration for Clean Water Fund usage. That recommendation is to be sent to the House Cultural and Outdoor Resources Finance Division.

A companion, SF1944 sponsored by Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan), awaits action by the Senate Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Budget Division.

The zoo proposes to work with students from the adjacent School of Environmental Studies to help monitor the lake’s water quality. The plan also includes the planting of native vegetation and reuse of storm water runoff for irrigation purposes.

Ehmke said zoo attendance, which reached 1.2 million guests in 2008, is ahead of projected goals, due in large part to recent state capital investments that paid for new exhibits, such as Russia’s Grizzly Coast. The grizzly exhibit incorporated an irrigation system that zoo officials would like to replicate in other areas.

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