Retired state engineer visits CRWD projects he helped plan, build
Al Kean served 27 years with MN Board of Water & Soil Resources
While starting to plan and build large berms that temporarily capture large amounts of stormwater, the Cedar River Watershed District leaned greatly on Al Kean.
For 27 years, Kean served as the chief engineer for the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources (BWSR), a state agency, and worked on many different aspects of water quality and conservation projects. One of his responsibilities focused on reviewing and commenting, if needed, on engineering plans related to state watershed laws.
“Al was a big role model for me and helped CRWD more than most realize,” said Cody Fox, who became CRWD’s administrator this spring after serving for six years as its project manager.
With his job, Kean stayed too busy to get out to see CRWD’s completed projects in person. This summer, however, Kean — who retired in 2020 — traveled to Mower County to join Fox in touring several sites under CRWD’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which has built more than dozen structures to date mostly upstream from the City of Austin in the flashy Dobbins Creek watershed.
“It was really great to finally get together with Al and show him the projects that mean so much to our community,” Fox said. “We are proud of all the work that has been done and the relationships we have built but it was extra special to have Al down to view and talk about projects he reviewed, offered comments on and helped us improve so we were efficient with every dollar.”
Fox worked extensively with Kean on ways to improve CRWD’s CIP projects. Kean always went out of his way to make time to help CRWD and other watershed districts develop solid plans, Fox said. While new as project manager, Fox reached out and gained a lot of valuable insight from Kean that helped CRWD produce high-quality projects that gained support from the State of Minnesota and The Hormel Foundation in Austin.
Launched in 2016, CRWD’s CIP initiative started with identifying 25 potential project sites for reducing flooding and improving water quality. As projects came to fruition, Kean reviewed and commented on plans submitted to BWSR under state statute.
During this time, CRWD was just developing and, to some extent, learning the process for developing flood-reduction projects, Fox said. Through that process, Kean was instrumental in giving valuable comments to Fox to improve CRWD’s projects and plans, he added.
CRWD’s CIP initiative aims for an 8 percent reduction in peak flows at the confluence of Dobbins Creek and the Cedar River State Water Trail in Austin. Upon completing CIP’s initial five-year plan, CRWD exceeded its goals by reducing the 100-year peak flows by 10 percent at the Cedar-Dobbins confluence.
