2016 Red Lake River Subwatershed (63025) Improvement Projects
The Red Lake River from County Ditch 96 (Pennington County) to where the Clearwater River enters the Red Lake River (Red Lake Falls) is on the TMDL Impaired Waters List for Turbidity. This reach is a high priority because of the high importance of the Red Lake River, which provides a domestic supply use of the water source and provides abundant recreational uses. Red Lake County SWCD has targeted three sites in the upper portion of the Red Lake River (63025) subwatershed in Red Lake County, with the potential of an additional five to ten more projects, based on data analysis obtained from using the Water Quality Decision Support System (WQDSS) tool, TMDL Impaired Waters List, DNR Stressor ID database, and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models. The data identified which sub-watersheds were contributing to these impairments, highlighted which fields in those sub-watersheds were contributing the most sediment, and even showed specific locations in the field which were most vulnerable to erosion. Red Lake County SWCD also conducted an Erosion Site Inventory in 2014, which verified the information from the tools/models, and found landowners in these priority areas that were eager to fix the erosion problems on their land. Water Quality Improvement Projects, which include but are not limited to, grade stabilization structures, streambank and shoreland protection, grassed waterways, and water & sediment basins, will be the Best Management Practices implemented to correct the erosion that is occurring at these site locations. Through the implementation of these Best Management Practices, the large amount of sediment that is being contributed from this subwatershed area will be reduced and water quality will be improved. The three proposed installed practices result in the following soil loss reductions numbers: Sediment (TSS) will be 692.90 T/yr., Soil (estimated savings) will be 1,796.67 T/yr. and Phosphorus (est. reduction) will be 588.97 lbs./yr.
http://www.bwsr.state.mn.us/board
Annie Felix-Gerth
Projects and Practices 2016: Laws of MN 2015 First Special Session Chapter 2, Article 7, Section 7
The turbidity impairment is based on excess suspended sediment in the river. Excess suspended sediment, when carried to streams can cause excess turbidity that harms aquatic life, increases water-treatment costs, and makes water less useful for recreation. The project will achieve an estimated sediment reduction of 690 tons/year and 590 lbs of phosphorus/year.
This project has resulted in an estimated annual reduction of 361 pounds of Phosphorus, 351 tons of Sediment, 780 tons of Soil Loss,
LOCAL LEVERAGED FUNDS