This area of the Minnesota River Basin has been identified as contributing significant amounts of sediment to the watershed. The primary cause of the sediment is from gullies and ravines. This project by the Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA) continues efforts begun with FY2011 Clean Water Funds. Using data collected through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and LiDAR, GERBA will install best management practices to address severe ravines and gullies in targeted specific locations.
Increased development pressure on shorelines and lakes with declining water quality is a concern in Cook County. To work towards reducing nutrient loading in lakes, the county has systematically prioritized lakeshore properties for SSTS inspections. The next three highly developed lakes identified for inspection are within the Lake Superior North Watershed. Monitoring has provided evidence of declining water quality in these lakes.
The goal of this project is to reduce the number of vulnerable unused wells located within sensitive areas and to prevent potential groundwater contamination. This project will provide cost-share well sealing funds to target sealing of unused wells located in highly vulnerable areas within both the City of Faribault, and the City of Northfield's Drinking Water Supply Management Areas (DWSMA), and other vulnerable areas of Rice County.
Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) is a largely developed area of the Twin Cities with an average impervious surface area of 34%. Faith organizations often have large impervious surface areas with little to no stormwater treatment on site. The goal of this project is to collaborate with faith organizations in high priority areas to implement stormwater volume reduction retrofit projects. High priority areas are defined as areas with limited to no stormwater treatment before reaching a water body and/or areas that drain to an impaired water.
The Whitewater River is one of Minnesota's most scenic and best loved rivers. The Whitewater's pools are home to brown, brook and rainbow trout, making the river one of the state's most popular trout fishing areas. Yet, water quality is of concern. Abnormal rainfall events in Southeastern Minnesota have increased stormwater runoff which equates to increased flows, erosion and sedimentation into the Whitewater and other local streams like the Zumbro River.
This project will educate and also encourage residents to join the Le Sueur County cost-share well sealing program to provide assistance in sealing unused/abandoned wells.
Turbidity and sediment yield from the Le Sueur River watershed to the Minnesota River is a problem. Studies have shown that 200,000 tons/yr come from non-field sources and 25,000 tons/yr come from field sources. With this grant we will develop strategies to reduce sediment yield from the Freeborn County Cobb River Ditch subwatershed.
With the proposed project, the Pomme de Terre River Association will target catchments delivering the highest 25% of sediment from agricultural land and identified priority management zones for storm water runoff (identified in the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy). Implementation is estimate to reduce sediment runoff to prioritized water bodies by 14,690 tons per year and phosphorous by 12,270 pounds per year.
This project will continue collaboration with faith organizations in priority areas to implement stormwater volume reduction retrofit projects. Priority areas are defined as areas with limited to no stormwater treatment before reaching a water body and/or areas that drain to an impaired or at risk water.
The LeSueur River Watershed is one of the highest nutrient loading watersheds for both phosphorus and nitrogen in the State of Minnesota. The LeSueur River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) Report was completed in August 2015 and further identifies pollutant sources and reduction goals within the LeSueur River Watershed. The WRAPS report highlights the Beauford Ditch watershed and the Madison Lake watershed area amongst the highest sources of nutrient loading to the LeSueur River.
The Mississippi River is currently listed as impaired for turbidity. Eroding riverbanks are one of the causes of this impairment. An inventory was completed in 2016 of riverbank condition along 5.8-miles of the Mississippi River that is within the City of Ramsey. In this inventory, ten severe to very severe eroding stretches spanning 27 private properties and 6,550 linear feet were identified. Cumulatively, these sites contribute 5,148 tons of sediment per year to the river.
The objective of the project is to develop a targeted stormwater implementation and outreach program focused on non-profit partners. The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District is a 50 square mile fully-developed watershed with 15 major lakes and over twenty miles of creek system. Given that much development in this area occurred prior to the era of stormwater management regulations, runoff from many sites is untreated prior to discharge to downstream water bodies.
To be able to manage resources in the Blue Earth and Le Sueur Watersheds into the future and have a positive effect on water quality, resource managers need high quality accurate data to support decision making of best management practice (BMP) implementation. Digital elevation data is a valuable resource for modeling water flow, however in its current state it cannot represent water conveyance through features such as roadways. These flow barriers limit the accurate use of data for recently developed targeting tools identifying BMP suitability and effectiveness down to the field scale.
The Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District partnered with Cass SWCD, Hubbard SWCD, and the Board of Water and Soil Resources to permanently protect 239.6 acres of upland forest land, wetlands, and shorelines to develop larger habitat blocks. We worked with seven landowners in total to complete seven RIM easements - acres by county Cass: 117 acres, Crow Wing 34 acres, and Hubbard 87 acres. Partners met regularly; the regional committee completed the final application recommendations to move forward into the RIM easement process.
A new GIS technician will help prioritize and target conservation activities and protection strategies in nine north-central Minnesota counties. The GIS technician will create GIS products, assessments, and watershed analysis to identify the high priority areas in each County or watershed in need of protection or restoration using all available data, including LiDAR, soils, land use, completed WRAPS and other datasets. These areas will then be targeted for future resource management efforts, Clean Water Fund projects, and additional conservation activities.
The Sauk River watershed was selected to participate in the federal Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI) program in 2010 to decrease nutrient contributions to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The MRBI program provides federal cost share funds to landowners to install conservation practices.
The Medicine Lake Excess Nutrient Total Maximum Daily Load study indicates a volume reduction of 10% will reduce phosphorus loading to Medicine Lake by over 300 pounds. The 400 Project is a grant program supporting projects to reduce existing impervious surface and increase infiltration through the implementation and use of porous pavement(s) and/or reinforced turf technology. While new construction has more opportunity to include water quality improvements, The 400 Project is unique in that can assist with redevelopment projects where space is limited.
Over the past 20 years, Minneola Township in Goodhue County has experienced uncontrolled flooding events. These floods have caused extensive damage to private property, public roads, and even loss of life. Storing stormwater higher in the watershed will reduce the amount and intensity of these extreme rain events. Ultimately lowering the volume and rate of storm event flows will cause less damage and improve safety. Just as important are the water quality benefits that will accrue and reduce sedimentation
and improve the health of the Zumbro River.
This application expands on the competitive "Future of Farming" CWF Grant that Becker SWCD received in 2022. The project builds resilient agricultural systems and achieves non-point source pollution reductions identified by local and regional water quality monitoring and models. This application will focus on the public water system of the Otter Tail River where the City of Fergus Falls draws their drinking water downstream of Becker County. It will also focus on the groundwater vulnerability of the Straight River located in the Crow Wing River Watershed and the Redeye River Watershed.
Fourteen permanent RIM Easements on 766 acres of high quality, riparian and forested habitat have been recorded and will provide lasting wildlife habitat. Attempts were made to acquire three tracts in fee title that would have relied on this funding. The owner of one tract rejected an offer of the certified appraised value. Acquisition attempts on the other two tracts were discontinued when it became apparent that the planned use of the land as DNR Wildlife Management Area would be incompatible with local government plans for future municipal growth.
The Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA), a nine County/SWCD JPO has identified buffers as a basin priority. This initiative will work towards the goal of identifying all DNR protected shoreland in the GBERBA counties without a 50 foot vegetative buffer. Buffer strips protect surface and groundwater from a multitude of pollutants. During stormwater run off events buffers can remove between 50 and 100 percent of nutrients, pesticides, pathogens, and sediment. The estimated sediment reduction for this project is 756 tons per year prevented from entering our waters.
Eight RIM Wetlands applications were selected for funding on 1146.2 acres from this appropriation. In addition 19 RIM-WRP easements, totaling 2,239 acres were funded. Thus a total of 3,385 acres were protected and restored to wetland and grassland habitat. All easements have been recorded. Leverage from other sources of funds was a little over $4.5M.
Three streambank stabilization projects have been identified as high priority projects in the Thief River Falls Water Quality Study completed in 2017. The proposal will use a combination of bendway weirs, toe protection by building a floodplain bench and live stake plantings. It has been estimated that a total of 385 tons per year of sediment from these three locations is entering the river contributing to the impairment downstream.
The goal of the project is to identify priority locations for project implementation using the Prioritize, Targeting, and Measuring Application (PTMApp) in the Thief River Watershed. The PTMApp will be used to identify and evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of best management practices including treatment scenarios, and provide estimates of sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus delivered to the Thief River Watershed, which is impaired for sediment.
Thiel Creek is a designated trout stream in southern Stearns County and outlets into Lake Marie and Lake Louisa. Both lakes are impaired for nutrients. Thiel Creek is experiencing severe bank erosion and local residents have expressed concern about the excessive sedimentation entering the lakes. Most of this erosion is occurring on an approximate mile reach of the creek just upstream of the outlet into the lake.
Thompson Lake is a shallow lake located in the City of West St. Paul, within the Lower Mississippi River Watershed Management Organization (LMRWMO). The 7-acre lake receives runoff from a 175-acre urban watershed that was developed in the 1950's and currently provides very little stormwater treatment. The eastern shoreline is within Thompson County Park, which features a fishing pier, event center, and miles of regionally connected trails. The west shoreline of the lake abuts the St. Croix Lutheran School.
This project will inventory and conduct compliance inspections on Subsurface Treatment Systems (SSTS) around eight lakes in Todd County. Lakes to be inventoried include Big Sauk Lake, Big Swan Lake, Little Osakis Lake, Fairy Lake, Lily Lake, Long Lake, Little Birch Lake and Moose Lake. Approximately 1,200 parcels will receive compliance inspections. Systems that fail to meet standards will be brought into compliance using procedures available in rule and ordinance.
This project represents the third septic inventory effort by Todd County. The four lakes included - Guernsey, Juergans, Little Sauk, and Long Lakes - are all designated by the Sauk River Water District's Sauk Lake Management Unit as high priority for water quality improvement. Three of these lakes are listed as water quality-impaired for nutrients and the fourth - Long Lake - has had periodic e.Coli problems documented in several tributaries. This project will allow Todd County to expand on previous evaluations of 13 other lakes.
Todd County Septic Inspectors will research septic systems on 313 parcels that are located in the "highly vulnerable" portion of the City of Long Prairie's Drinking Water Supply Management Area. Each parcel's tanks and soil drain fields will be inspected for septic system compliance. Todd County will follow up with landowners found to have noncompliant systems in an effort to protect Long Prairie''s drinking water supply.
The proposed work will be the fifth septic inventory effort conducted by Todd County and will include eight lakes, 431 parcels, and 277 established addresses. Three of the lakes - Cedar, Long Higgens, and Pauley are located in the Sauk River Watershed District's Sauk Lake Management Unit which is a high priority for improvement. These are the last three lakes of any size to be completed in the Sauk River Watershed portion of Todd County. Nitrogen and phosphorus levels are an issue through the watershed and this management unit in particular.
This project strives to continue progress towards the sediment and nutrient reduction goals for the Buffalo River. Specific targeted practices and quantities include Water and Sediment Control Basins (110), Grade Stabilizations (7), Grassed Waterways (10), Critical Area Plantings (12), Filter Strips (45 ac.), Cover Crops (2,500 ac/year), Rotational Grazing/Use Exclusion (320 ac), Wetland Restoration (86 ac).
This project strives to make further, substantial steps towards the sediment and nutrient reduction goals for Buffalo River Watershed District's (BRRWD) Mainstem and Lakes Planning Region and the objectives of the Buffalo-Red River Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan adopted in 2021.
