The Douglas County Partners for Clean Water program enables community groups to take action and improve their water resources. Engaging citizens directly in project development and installation efforts provides immediate water quality benefits and cultivates a community of active stewardship.
This project is Phase IV of work to install water and sediment basins located within Sand Hill Watershed. A water and sediment basin is an earthen embankment built so that sediment-laden runoff is temporarily detained, allowing sediment to settle out before runoff is discharge. These are installed on agricultural cropland where erosion exceeds the allowable soil rate. Minimum detention time to store water is 36 hours for a 10 year, 24 hour runoff event. Starting in 2010, the District received dollars to assist landowners with flood-related projects.
This project is a cooperative initiative between the Prior Lake Spring Lake Watershed District, the City of Prior Lake, and the Scott Soil and Water Conservation District to implement on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will protect and improve water quality in Spring, Upper Prior and Lower Prior Lakes, water resources of local, regional, and state significance. Spring and Upper Prior Lakes are both impaired and have a completed Total Maximum Daily Load and Implementation Plan.
This grant application will focus on the construction of multiple targeted best management practices (BMPs) in priority areas which will provide measurable reductions in sediment and phosphorus loadings to cold water streams in the Mississippi River/Lake Pepin Watershed. The installation of these BMPs will also protect the existing stream habitat by reducing peak flows and reduced streambank erosion.
This program will develop and implement stormwater management plans and shoreline restoration projects with community partners. Community partners for this program will include but are not limited to: non-profits, businesses, and faith organizations within the Rainy River-Baudette watershed.
The purpose of this program is to provide cost share funding to community groups for the installation of community accessible rain gardens and other water quality projects in Ramsey County. The Ramsey Conservation District (RCD) in partnership with local property owners and Watershed Districts/Water Management Organizations will install 6-12 stormwater best management projects that will help protect and improve water quality of surrounding lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands.
The Red Lake Watershed District will create an inspection database for 103E ditches under their drainage authority. The district will acquire a database software solution to conduct field inspections and to track ditch maintenance projects and use the software to facilitate compliance with state statutes. The project will also develop a process for completing the annual inspection and reporting requirements under Statue 103E.
The Aitkin County Soil and Water Conservation District will partner with local lake associations and other eligible community partners to reduce the impacts of storm water runoff and retain water on the land. We will implement a mini-grant program that will install rain gardens and native vegetation buffers along shorelines using deep-rooted native vegetation that will filter runoff, promote infiltration, and control stormwater runoff and soil erosion.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Wetlands Partnership Phase VI protected and restored 1,391 acres of previously drained wetlands and adjacent grasslands on 15 conservation easements.
Capitol Region Watershed District is partnering with St. Paul Public Schools to implement a variety of highly visible Best Management Practices at Central High School that will improve the quality of stormwater discharged to the Mississippi River. A tremendous amount of sediment is discharged from the school annually due to the large impervious areas and lack of vegetation. Implementing the projects will reduce sediment by 86% and phosphorus by 90% over the target area annually.
This program is a part of a comprehensive clean water strategy to prevent sediment and nutrients from entering our lakes, rivers, and streams; enhance fish and wildlife habitat; protect groundwater and wetlands. Specifically the Riparian Buffer Easement Program targets creating buffers on riparian lands adjacent to lakes, rivers, streams and tributaries. Through the Reinvest in Minnesota Program (RIM) and in partnership with Soil and Water Conservation Districts and private landowners, permanent conservation easements are purchased and buffers established.
The Sand Hill River Watershed District along with the West Polk Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will install 18 rock riffles and 2 rock arch rapids to control the grade and stabilize the channelized reach of the Sand Hill River, which contributes thousands of tons of sediment downstream. The entire Sand Hill River is currently impaired for turbidity. The total project length is five miles of channel located between the cities of Fertile and Beltrami in western Polk County.
Over the past two years, Dakota County has learned that many properties within the city do not have septic system records identifying the presence or condition of their septic system, and anecdotal evidence that some are failing. The County will use CWF Accelerated Implementation Grant dollars to inventory and inspect all septic systems within the City of Randolph. As part of the inspection, a well inventory will also be conducted. Based on a preliminary assessment, there are 105 properties that will require inspection.
Shattuck Saint Mary's, located atop of a bluff area upland of the east bank of the Straight River, encompasses a land area of 324 acres that contains over 16,426 miles of mild to extensively eroded ravines and gullies; many of which directly discharge to the Straight River. In addition to pollutant loads in runoff from the school's watershed and eroded ravines, banks and gullies, the Straight River also experiences pollutant loading from eroding stream banks in this reach; annual sediment loads average 1,962 tons per year.
The purpose of this project is to create an inventory and priority list of where inlet control and buffer strips are needed along Judicial Ditch 15 to reduce the nutrients, sediment and volume of water being transported by field tile. This will help protect landowner drainage needs, while focusing on applicable best management practices that will reduce on-field and in-channel peak flow erosion. This ditch system is the headwaters to Cokato Lake, which connects to the North Fork Crow River.
The Chippewa River Watershed Project will work with local partners, such as Land Stewardship Project, soil and water conservation districts, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to restore water quality in Lake Gilchrist, Simon Lake, Lake Johanna and in Mud Creek, and to protect unimpaired water resources in the watershed. This will be done through implementation of Best Management Practices focusing on the reduction of phosphorous, sediment, and runoff in the landscape, primarily by increasing the landscape's ability to retain water.
The Project and Outreach Coordinator will facilitate efforts within the watershed to provide landowner support and assistance in identifying areas in need of conservation plans and best management practices. The coordinator would use the Watershed Protection and Restoration Strategy Report and county water plans to target and prioritize outreach and education to maximize water quality benefits. This will greatly multiply the number of educated landowners in the watershed and increase the number of projects implemented.
This project primarily focuses on riparian restoration (permanent vegetative buffer enhancements and plantings) on 6.5 miles (both sides) of targeted tributaries, ditches, and wetlands within five sub - watershed areas identified in the Snake River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) Report. These plantings will consist of native perennials, trees, and shrubs where practical. In addition to the riparian plantings, this project will include fence exclusions for cattle and heavy use protections at cattle crossings in streams and ditches.
The South Branch Wild Rice Sediment Reduction Project will implement 45 erosion control structures and 40 acres of filter strips to reduce sediment loading to the South Branch of the Wild Rice River in Becker County. Sediment leaving the project area contributes to water quality impairments downstream where Total Suspended Solids (TSS) are affecting aquatic life and aquatic recreation. This project is projected to reduce sediment loads leaving the project area by 26% and reduce TSS in the Lower Wild Rice River by 7%.
Capitol Region Watershed District will partner with local organizations and private landowners to implement a variety of cost-effective Best Management Practices in the East Kittsondale subwatershed. The urbanized condition of the 1,860 acre subwatershed results in an estimated 1,500 pounds of phosphorus, over 470,000 pounds of sediment, and significant concentrations of bacteria associated with that sediment being sent untreated to the Mississippi River each year. Those pollutants have contributed to several impairments within the river.
Well-managed forests deliver the optimal quantity and quality of surface runoff and groundwater water recharge possible. This Forest Management and outreach program will help protect, preserve, and improve water quality and related water resources by hiring a Regional Clean Water Forester. The Forester will help LGUs in Technical Service Areas (TSA) 3 and 8 increase installation of water quality-related forestry practices.
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.
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.
At almost 4,000 acres, Trout Brook is the largest subwatershed in the Capitol Region Watershed District and the City of Saint Paul. The restored stream is part of the 42 acre Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary project, whose goal is to return the area back to some resemblance of its pre-industrialized valley of stream floodplain and wetlands. Monitoring results within the corridor show that phosphorus, sediments, bacteria, lead and copper are the pollutants of most concern.
The South Branch of Cascade Creek Turbidity Reduction Project will construct three wetland retention structures within the upper half of the watershed for water quality improvement including sediment reduction, flood attenuation and wildlife habitat improvement. The project will construct wetland basins on the Meadow Lake Golf Course to provide water quality improvement on a previously untreated branch that flows into the upper end of the stream channel restoration project.
Crow Wing County is pursuing this grant to continue this proven community and landowner outreach campaign by developing new water planning tools and using print and social media strategies to effect a positive change in our watersheds. The County believes that landowners want to do the right thing and has the data to show that when doing the right thing can be presented in customer-focused, fact-driven, easy-to-understand format, they get engaged and conservation gets done!
A joint effort of Becker and Clay Soil and Water Conservation District, the Buffalo Red Shallow Lakes and Mainstem Improvement Strategy will reduce nutrient and sediment delivery to 12 impaired lakes and impaired reaches of the Buffalo River through a targeted and prioritized approach to the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). Numerous models have been combined with local knowledge to identify chief sources of constituents in the watershed and to isolate and prioritize implementation sites demonstrating the most significant gains in water quality.
This project will construct a stormwater treatment facility to treat runoff from 6,500 acre urban and agricultural drainage area in and around the City of Watkins, MN. The result is an annual phosphorus reduction of 796 pounds to Lake Betsy, the Clearwater River, and the Clearwater River Chain of Lakes.
This program is a part of a comprehensive clean water strategy to prevent sediment and nutrients from entering our lakes, rivers, and streams; enhance fish and wildlife habitat; protect groundwater and wetlands. Specifically the Wellhead Protection Conservation Easement program is targeted to protect drinking water through the Reinvest in Minnesota Program (RIM).
This project will allow lake associations and other motivated groups to use their local landowner networks and site specific knowledge to effectively implement best management practices that fit within the greater context of Wright County's Water Management Plan.
