PROJECT OVERVIEW The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Wetlands Reserve Program restores wetlands and grasslands through the purchase of permanent conservation easements on privately owned land. The easements limit future land use and put conservation plans in place for future management. The Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources is using this appropriation to accelerate the RIM Wetlands Reserve Program resulting in additional permanently protected wetlands and grasslands throughout the state.
The RIM-WRP program will expand past efforts and provide important benefits to the citizens of Minnesota by restoring and permanently protecting priority wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat via perpetual conservation easements. This funding will leverage $12.6 million of federal WRP funds for the State of Minnesota and is expected to create and sustain 343 jobs and income to local landowners, businesses and others in the state based on USDA economic estimates.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) Partnership will accelerate the restoration and protection of approximately 4,620 acres of previously drained wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat complexes via perpetual conservation easements. The goal of the RIM-WRP Partnership is to achieve the greatest wetland functions and values, while optimizing wildlife habitat on every acre enrolled in the partnership.
Since 2008, a ravine on the Northwest side of Reitz Lake has been eroding on a private parcel, causing sediment and nutrients to discharge into the waterbody. This project will stabilize a ravine that has formed from Airport Road down to Reitz Lake.
The Reitz Lake restoration project began several years ago when water quality samples showed the lake was impaired. Carver County and residents around the lake took action and began to develop a plan (TMDL) to clean up Reitz Lake.Once the TMDL study and the associated implementation plan (which helps to target specific projects) were completed, funding was sought to target high priority projects around the Lake. First, direct untreated run-off from a farmed area of approximately 100 acres to the north of the lake will be slowed and filtered before it enters the lake.
State law (M.L. 2011, First Special Session, Ch. 6) directs restoration evaluations to be conducted on habitat restoration projects completed with funds from the Clean Water Fund (M.S. 114.D.50 Subd. 6). The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) is responsible for convening a Restoration Evaluation Panel containing at least five technical experts who will evaluate a sample of up to 10 habitat restoration projects annually. The Panel will evaluate the restorations relative to the law, current science, stated goals and standards in the restoration plans, and applicable guidelines.
The goal of this project is to implement 10-15 medium sized projects that will infiltrate and reduce pollutant loads to the waters in the Riley-Purgatory-Creek Watershed District. The District intends to achieve this by using their Citizen Advisors who are well involved with local associations, City staff who are familiar with associations in their jurisdiction and also seek less-known association through various advertising methods. We intend to use staff knowledge to insure that the projects are suitable for the site and implemented correctly to maximize efficiency.
Under the CREP partnership with USDA, 71 easements were recorded on a total of 4,365 acres to restore previously drained wetlands and adjacent uplands. The easements were accomplished with local implementation done by SWCD, NRCS and FSA staff within the 54 county CREP area and leveraged federal funds for both landowner payments and cost share for conservation practice installation.
The Sauk River's CWMP identifies altered hydrology and excessive sediment & nutrients as the top priority resource concerns to be addressed. Goals for each priority resource concern are found on pages 4-6 and 4-21 of the CWMP. To achieve these goals, The CWMP contains multiple prioritization schemes, on both a watershed-wide and watershed management unit basis, to achieve these goals - refer to pages 4-8 through 4-11 and 4-22 through 4-31 of the CWMP.
The Sauk River Stormwater Runoff Reduction and Riparian Restoration Project is a watershed-wide effort to reduce the amount of nutrients delivered by stormwater and bank erosion to area surface waters. Funds will be used to assist local schools and municipalities with their restoration project design, installation, and financing.
The purpose of this project is to install a sediment pond along County Ditch #4A to trap sediment and associated pollutants before entering into Bevens Creek which drains into the Minnesota River. Carver County Ditch #4A recently went through a redetermination of benefits process and state law now requires a buffer strip one rod (16.5 feet) wide to be maintained along the top of the ditch bank. The sediment pond, in combination with the buffer strip, will reduce the amount of sediments and pollutants that reach Bevens Creek.
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 Wright Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will expand its partnership with its USDA partners; this will be the first time that SWCD staff will conduct compliance spot checks for USDA Highly Erodible Land plans. This activity will add a level of certainty that these plans are in compliance.
The project is part of the Six Mile-Halsted Bay Subwatershed Plan, a planning partnership currently underway which aims to protect and improve natural resources within this priority subwatershed by working closely with partnering agencies to integrate capital investments and maximize public return on investment. This project will enhance two existing stormwater ponds to enhance treatment of phosphorus as well as incorporate treatment of the Church Lake outlet, a lake which routinely fails to meet state water quality standards and contributes to the water quality impairment of East Auburn.
The primary goal of this project is to protect public water supplies from contamination from nonpoint-sourced pollution by providing farmers with resources to implement soil health Best Management Practices (BMPs) within a set radius of municipal Drinking Water Supply Management Areas (DWSMAs) for cities within Traverse County. The secondary goal of the project is protection of public surface waters and measurable progress towards reduction of nutrient and sediment pollution to impaired watercourses.
This project seeks to inventory twenty registered feedlots identified as having an Unpermitted Liquid Manure Storage Area. Specifically, this inventory would include offering cost-share for soils investigations. These feedlots are located in three townships that have also been identified as having groundwater that is vulnerable to nutrient pollution, necessitating a need for nitrate testing per MN Department of Agriculture. These townships also house the vast majority of remaining unpermitted Liquid Manure Storage Areas in the County.
Imminent Health Threat (IHT) systems are those that are discharging improperly treated human waste onto the ground surface or into surface waters. In addition to the potential water quality impacts, untreated sewage has the potential to introduce bacteria and viruses into the environment. When IHT systems are identified, county or city staff assist the homeowners through the process required to bring their systems into compliance with the septic ordinance.
Successful long-term treatment of sewage depends on a system capable of providing adequate treatment and effective on-going operation and maintenance. Clean Water Fund Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) Program Enhancement funds are used by counties to strengthen programs dedicated to SSTS ordinance management and enforcement. These funds are used for a variety of tasks required to successfully implement a local SSTS program including inventories, enforcement, and databases to insure SSTS maintenance reporting programs.
Grants to counties to implement SSTS programs including inventories, enforcement, development of databases, and systems to insure SSTS maintenance and of reporting program results to BWSR and MPCA and base grants.
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.
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.
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.
This project will improve water quality in the heart of Douglas County?s livestock country. The goal of the project is to improve drinking water quality by upgrading, replacing or closing existing damaged or unpermitted manure storage areas, in addition to addressing open lot runoff. Five project locations have been identified and up to 4 more are anticipated to be identified in the next two years, for a total of up to 10 projects. Estimated pollution reduction is 421 pounds of nitrogen and 122 pounds of phosphorus.
Nitrate levels in the water supply for the city of Benson have slowly but steadily been increasing since 2012. This project aims to work with the landowners surrounding the Drinking Water Supply Management Areas (DWSMA's) for Benson and Appleton in Swift County to reduce or eliminate the amount of nitrate entering these water supplies. Proven and effective strategies will be implemented to achieve the goals set forth in this grant.
Planned improvements to the Downtown area will include installation of underground storage, use of a water tower retired from potable service, and a new irrigation system to utilize stormwater runoff in lieu of potable water for irrigation of several green areas.
This proposal will fund technical assistance for nutrient management planning to accelerate water quality improvements with the 12-county West Central Technical Service Area (WCTSA). A needs assessment identified an estimated 156 certified nutrient management plans that will be needed over a 3 year period. Of the 71 SWCD employees in the WCTSA, only 1 SWCD staff member is dedicated to nutrient management planning. To meet technical assistance needs, this grant will fund a Regional Planning Specialist (RPS) to address local resource concerns.
The West Central Technical Service Area (WCTSA) serves 12 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) in west central Minnesota and has been experiencing increased workload due to greater requests from member SWCDs. This funding will sustain a limited-term technician and purchase related support equipment to assist landowners in implementing targeted, high priority practices that result in the greatest water quality outcomes.
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 makes an additional plant growth chamber available to increase efficiency for the MPCA Wild Rice Standards Study, which is gathering information about the effects of sulfate on the growth of wild rice.
Wolverton Creek is a 25 mile long tributary to the Red River of the North. Its watershed drains approximately 105 square miles located in Wilkin and western Clay Counties. Wolverton Creek is the outlet for numerous ditch systems and natural drainage in the area and is a significant contributor of sediment to the Red River. The City of Moorhead and other downstream communities obtain drinking water from the Red River. Since 85% of Moorhead's drinking water comes from the Red River, high turbidity results in
higher treatment costs for their drinking water system.
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.
