May 30—BEMIDJI — Anyone driving along Bemidji Avenue the past few days has been sure to notice the large-scale project underway near Bemidji State’s John Glas Fieldhouse.
In 2023, the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources awarded the Beltrami County Soil and Water Conservation District a Clean Water Fund grant for $228,300 to support a stormwater project that would further protect Lake Bemidji.
Now, the project is in the construction stage, and the field adjacent to the John Glas is the backdrop.
The project is a joint effort between the city of Bemidji, BSU and Beltrami County’s SWCD to improve the area’s water basin.
This improved water basin, situated under BSU’s intramural ballfields along Bemidji Avenue, will filter and treat stormwater before it enters Lake Bemidji. It should also help alleviate flooding.
“(The project will) keep an estimated 58 pounds of phosphorus and 22,841 pounds of total suspended solids out of the lake each year,” according to the
BSWR.
“The planned subsurface stormwater treatment system will help the watershed partnership — comprised of Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard and Itasca Counties and SWCDs — accomplish 25% of its 224-pounds-a-year phosphorus reduction goal for Lake Bemidji.”
The SWCD also made $68,000 in Enbridge funds available to the BSU Sustainability Office for two related projects on campus — a stormwater retention basin on the site of a solar array, and
a rain garden
along Bemidji Avenue — which were both completed in 2024.
The project utilizes space absorbed from the Oak Hall parking lot, from which 27 asphalt spaces were removed. The basin is designed to handle roughly 25% of the stormwater runoff from the lot. Even with the loss of spaces, Oak Hill remains the largest lot on campus, with 455 available parking spaces.
According to the agreement approved by all sides, BSU will monitor and maintain the water basin and rain garden for 10 years.