Coldwater Springs, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
2008 Site Status: Preservation in Limbo

The future of Coldwater— will it be part of a national park?

BY SUSU JEFFREY

From Southside Pride: www.southsidepride.com/2008/01/articles/ThefutureofColdwater.html

The future of Coldwater Spring, currently flowing at about 90,000 gallons a day, is in the hands of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). Soon, the DOI will announce what public entity will “own” this 10,000-year-old spring. And whoever “owns” it could directly impact the future of the spring.

When Hwy. 55 was rerouted, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) promised “no adverse impact” to Coldwater Spring, which is losing more than 27,500 gallons daily since construction ended, according to MnDOT’s own measurements. In a huge bureaucracy, with multiple spokespeople, no one is accountable.

The 55/62 interchange will be rebuilt in 20-some years. There is enough land for a full cloverleaf if Highway 55 is expanded into a freeway. Whatever agency is responsible for the 27-acre Coldwater property must be powerful enough to force MnDOT to obey the law.

In 2001 the Minnesota legislature passed a law mandating no “loss of flow to or from” Coldwater Spring. No Minnesota court, watershed district, or citizen’s group was able to enforce compliance by MnDOT, the state’s richest, most powerful agency. In the late 1980s the Great Medicine Spring in Theodore Wirth Park and historic Glenwood Spring were permanently dewatered with construction of I-394 west out of Minneapolis.

The National Park Service (NPS) tops the list of best available overseers. Coldwater is part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) under NPS jurisdiction and a National Historic Landmark. Coldwater supporters believe federal ownership is the best hope for protection and preservation of the county’s last natural spring since the majority of interstate highway money comes from federal funds.

The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community (MMDC) called for a conservation easement at Coldwater to “cover all 27 acres in perpetuity and also that the site be managed by the National Park Service” in August 2000. At the time a $6 million agreement to sell the property to the airport for parking and warehouse space looked like Coldwater’s future. But the deal fell through with the economic airline collapse after the World Trade Towers catastrophe. “It was the only good thing to come out of 9/11,” said Jim Anderson, MMDC’ s Cultural Chair.

Before white settlement, Coldwater (Mni Owe Sni, “water-spring-cold” in Dakota) was a sacred gathering place for Dakota, Anishinabe, Ho Chunk, Iowa, Sauk and Fox peoples. Anishinable spiritual elder Eddie Benton Benais from Lac Courte Oreilles, Wis., recounted in court-ordered testimony how his grandfather “traveled by foot, by horse, by canoe to this great place to where there would be these great religious, spiritual events. And that they always camped between the falls (Minnehaha) and the sacred water place (Coldwater). Those are his words.
” Only the federal level offers recognition to Native Americans.

In 1805 Lt. Zebulon Pike signed a treaty with two (of seven) Dakota leaders for permission to build a fort between the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and the falls now called St. Anthony. The fort exists but the treaty has yet to be tested in court.

In 1820, Lt. Col. Henry Leavenworth ordered troops to build huts at “Camp Coldwater” and begin cutting limestone out of the Mississippi bluff to build a fort. Fort Snelling attracted pioneers who subsequently founded the state of Minnesota.

Coldwater furnished water to Fort Snelling from 1820 to 1920 and was listed on various maps as “Coldwater Park” from the 1880s into the 1940s. In the late 1950s Coldwater was briefly considered as a nuclear power plant site but became a Cold War research campus where taconite was developed. Since 1991, when the Cold War ended and Congress terminated the U.S. Bureau of Mines, this Mississippi blufftop property has been up for grabs.

Sacred site, birthplace of Minnesota—this stretch along the Mississippi is arguably the most historic in the state.
How You Can Help
Coldwater supporters are calling for NPS ownership of a 50-acre “Coldwater Park” (including 2-blocks of Veteran’s Administration land) from the south end of Minnehaha Regional Park to Fort Snelling State Park. Coldwater Park is envisioned as an oak savanna urban wilderness designated as a Green Museum, a place where the land is the museum.

To comment on Coldwater’s future, e-mail Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Department of the Interior at webteam@ios.doi.gov or phone 202-208-7351 (e-mail preferred).

Consider calling or copying your email to:
Congressman Keith Ellison 612-522-1212 or http://ellison.house.gov
Senator Amy Klobuchar 612-727-5220 or http://klobuchar.senate.gov
Senator Norm Coleman 651-645-0323 or http://coleman.senate.gov
More info at www.FriendsofColdwater.org

COLDWATER SAVED!
SOUTHSIDE PRIDE, Nokomis Edition, October 2001, Vol. XI, Issue 8, pages 1 and 5

By Susu Jeffrey

The Metropolitan Airports Commission will not be purchasing Coldwater Springs after all. Because of post-Sept. 11 belt-tightening measures by the airline industry the proposed runway 4-22 extension has been canceled, removing the historic "Birthplace of Minnesota" from the runway safety zone and saving $6-million.

The cancellation also changes overflight height restrictions for the Highway 55/62 interchange. The roadbed can now be raised out of the path of underground water feeding Coldwater Springs.

Front Gate Looking In by Tom Holtzleiter www.preservecampcoldwater.org

"There is no longer any reason to not raise the road," said Tom Holtzleiter of Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition.

"Raising the road is the cheapest and easiest solution," said Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Administrator Eric Evenson. The watershed district has been in a fierce legal battle with the Minnesota Department of Transportation over road design and hydrology science. A court-ordered independent third party recommended the construction of a concrete liner, nicknamed "the bathtub," to surround and encase the low road. The $4 to $8-million "bathtub" would theoretically channel the underground water around and under the sprawling multi-lane Highway 62 roadbed for several hundred feet, allowing the water to resume its original flow on the other side. But would it?

Evenson described the Highway 55/62 interchange area as "a sink," where water seems to be flowing in from all directions. Not all the water in the construction zone outflows to Coldwater. There is more than one aquifer system.

Coldwater gets a third to a half of its water from under the interchange Evenson said. The watershed district said results from the dye tests and construction dewatering showed the relationship between the construction zone and the spring. MCWD hydrogeologic consultant Kelton Barr measured about a 25 percent loss of flow to Coldwater. Dennis Larson, Principal Engineer with MnDOT's Water Resources Division, said there is no significant effect on the spring from dewatering 250 gallons per minute (360,000 gallons a day).

The clue is the word "significant." MnDOT attorney Lisa Crum said "MnDOT (design) standards were based on reasonable estimates" when Hennepin County Judge Franklin Knoll chided: "MnDOT is one of the largest and most well-staffed departments in Minnesota. Your engineers, geologists and water specialists all signed off on this design..How could your professionals be so far off in their hydrology? What facts were not available to you." Thomas Vasaly, another MnDOT attorney at the Sept. 13 hearing at which MnDOT was seeking to be released from all previous agreements with the watershed said, "Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and MnDOT are not going to agree." The Department of Transportation, with a $600 million yearly budget, and the MCWD, with a $5 million annual budget, don't even agree on the baseline daily flow of water at Coldwater Springs. Figures range from 90,000 to 144,000 gallons per day.

Image by Susu Jeffery www.preservecampcoldwater.org

Five days after the hearing where MnDOT's argument wilted, MnDOT canceled construction of the Highway 55/62 intersection because, it said, the law guaranteeing the flow of water to Coldwater Springs was too stringent. An unmentioned factor was the project was so far behind schedule it could not have been completed before winter. MnDOT paid $2 million to Ames Construction as a broken contract penalty for the job stoppage. The following day Richard Stehr, MnDOT metro district engineer, told KFAI news "We aren't considering any alternatives." The state transportation department planned to take the issue back to the Legislature, which overwhelmingly passed the law prohibiting any diminishment of flow to or from the spring last May.

Cancellation of MAC's runway extension-and its trail of effects on MnDOT, MCWD and the Legislature-saves face all around. Incumbent and challenger candidates for the November elections are already jumping on the "I saved Coldwater" wagon.

"We were told we would lose and we would win," said Jim Anderson, cultural chair of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community. "We lost the Four Trees but we saved the spring."

MnDOT's road is designed to last 15-30 years. Coldwater Springs has been flowing at least 10,000 years.

Coldwater Springs Coalition Open House April, 27, 2000

Saving Coldwater - The cover story in the newsletter of sacred sites international foundation, site saver, Volume XI, Number 1, Fall 2000.

ssif / preservation /Coldwater Springs