2022 Red Lake County Multipurpose Drainage Management Grant

Red Lake County SWCD will continue to work cooperatively with the Red Lake County Ditch Authority, and the landowners involved to reduce erosion and sedimentation, reduce peak flows and flooding, improve water quality, and protect drainage system efficiency for priority Chapter 103E drainage systems by installing an estimated twenty-three multipurpose drainage management practices. The data identified which county ditch systems, were contributing to these impairments (TSS, E.coli, and DO), in the Clearwater River. The priority Chapter 103E drainage system is County Ditch 57, including the contributing ditch branches. These proposed Ag Practices are the strategies that will assist in achieving the sediment reduction goals. The estimated twenty-three priority County Ditch 57 locations were targeted from the information gathered from the 2014 & 2015 Drainage Ditch Inventory and Inspection grant. The estimated annual reduction in sediment being delivered to Clearwater River is 397 tons per year for the entire project.

Red Lake County SWCD advanced the Drainage Ditch Inventory process by using the Water Quality Decision Support System (WQDSS) tool, created by the International Waters Institute, to help prioritize areas where Multipurpose Drainage Management practices are needed. The Stream Power Index layer of the WQDSS tool indicates which flow paths have the highest erosive power and greatest potential for erosion. This tool helped assist the District with prioritizing and targeting these Multipurpose Drainage Management practice locations.

Red Lake County SWCD has already been proactive in selecting locations where multipurpose drainage management practices are needed to reduce soil loss, eliminate sediment deposition in the impaired ditch systems, improve water quality, and reduce maintenance costs with the installation of 160 NRCS Conservation Practice Code 410 practices over the past ten years.