Pet Waste Station Project
Several creeks in our watershed district are not meeting Clean Water Act standards for E. coli bacteria and phosphorus. One way to prevent this pollution is to reduce it at its source. One source is dog waste. To encourage the pickup of dog waste in targeted areas, we have installed and service 23 pet waste stations along trails adjacent to waterways that are not meeting standards.
For detailed information on the Clean Water Act requirements, go to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency webpage on TMDL projects.
Take our Survey!
Attention Trail Users! We want your feedback on the effectiveness of our Pet Waste Stations in reducing the amount of dog waste (poo) you see along trails where we’ve installed the stations. Your feedback helps us determine project improvements, project importance for future funding opportunities, and user need for these stations.
How It Works
To support our city partners we maintain the stations with a weekly contracted service, usually done on Fridays. Over 50,000 pounds of waste have been collected since November 2020!
Phase 1: Starting November 2020, 13 pet waste stations were installed and serviced along paved trails in the Pleasure Creek pond area of Blaine and around Sunrise Lake in The Lakes of Radisson. These Pet Waste Stations are in the Sand Creek subwatershed, meaning the water flows downstream via Ditch 41, becoming Sand Creek.
Phase 2: The success of the first project was leveraged to obtain US EPA 319 grant funds towards a similar Pet Waste Station project in 2022-2024 with the City of Blaine and the City of Coon Rapids for the Sand Creek subwatershed:
- In Coon Rapids, 7 pet waste stations were installed along the Sand Creek Trail from Xeon Blvd to Foley Blvd.
- 3 more stations were installed along the trail from Little League Park south to Fillmore & Quincy Parks in Blaine (Ditch 39 subwatershed).
This project helps the us, the City of Coon Rapids and the City of Blaine meet Clean Water Act requirements in reducing water pollution in Sand Creek!
The Future
The Survey information may help guide the next steps of continuing or expanding this project. Pet Waste Stations may be adopted out to neighboring HOAs or businesses who could have promotional info on their adopted station. Want to adopt a station? Contact Dawn Doering, Information Coordinator at 763.258.7136 (direct) or ddoering@cooncreekwd.org