The Otter Tail County Soil and Water Conservation Districts will work to complete individual lake assessments on thirty-eight lakes in Otter Tail County that have enough data for an assessment. These assessments will be incorporated into the County Water Plan and can be used by individual lake associations in completing a lake management plan. These assessments will greatly assist the County and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts prioritize future efforts for water quality improvements and protection projects.
The Otter Tail County Community Conservation Sub-grant Program enables community groups to go beyond planning and take action to protect their water resources. This grant program provides community groups with the means to make positive improvements now, and a venue to grow community and identify further water quality opportunities. Engaging community members in the identification of water protection opportunities helps build connections and foster a stewardship ethic.
This grant program provides community groups with the ability to make positive improvements, a venue to grow community and identify water quality opportunities. Engaging community members in the identification of water protection opportunities helps build connections and foster a stewardship ethic. Selecting projects requires community groups to collaboratively develop priorities among the range of water quality impacts. Implementing projects provides a unique active social enviroment that helps build connections and energy to motivate and grow the community into the next project.
The goals of project are to: 1) engage stakeholders and the public in watershed management activities; 2) conduct microbial source tracking to determine the source(s) of E.
The Otter Tail County Community Partners Grant Project will enable community groups to go beyond planning and take action to protect their water resources. This grant program will provide targeted community groups with the means to make positive improvements now and identify high priority projects for future opportunities. Engaging community members in the identification of water protection opportunities with the data in recently completed lake assessment reports will help build connections and foster a stewardship ethic.
This Initiative is a nine-year plan to take a systematic approach to inventory and analyze all Public Waters within the County. Phase 1 includes identifying areas of concern through GIS analysis of current landuse along Public Waters, and the development of a database of non-compliant landowners which will be updated and maintained. Once landowners have been identified they will receive a joint letter and map stating that they may not be in compliance.
This project will determine the condition of the water bodies in the Otter Tail River watershed, initiate public participation in the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) development process, begin identification of potential stressors and priority management areas within the watershed, and begin development of initial drafts of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study and WRAPS report.
The Otter Tail Water Management District (OTWMD) manages the wastewater for nearly 1,750 private residences near Otter Tail Lake, Deer Lake, and Lake Blanche. There OTWMD is responsible for 101 monitoring wells that were installed in 1984 and 1985 that are no longer being used and need to be properly sealed. The goal of this project is for the East Otter Tail Soil and Water Conservation District (EOTSWCD) to assist the OTWMD in properly sealing 100% of the monitoring wells that are located within the Otter Tail Surficial Aquifer.
The goal of this project is to complete the construction, calibration, and validation of a Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Otter Tail River watershed. The contractor will produce an HSPF model that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Studies. The model will generate predicted output for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen that is consistent with observed data.
The purpose of this project is to develop a detailed tool that can be used in all watersheds within the Otter Tail and Becker counties to prioritize, target, and measure implementation practices at the field scale. The PTM App will significantly increase the targeting capabilities in Otter Tail and Becker Counties. The Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy has not been completed for Otter Tail County, yet, and the PTM App will be able to assist targeting and prioritizing when those documents are created.
The Otter Tail River is located in west-central Minnesota. Its Lower Otter Tail River (LOTR) reach is impaired for sediment. The LOTR begins at the dam of Orwell Reservoir near Fergus Falls and ends 48 river miles downstream at the confluence with the Bois de Sioux River at Breckenridge. No point sources contribute directly to the LOTR. Consequently, the turbidity impairment must be addressed through non-point measures. Current stream instability and bank erosion is largely a result of an 18-mile channel straightening completed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s.
This restoration and protection project will reduce the loading of sediment to the Otter Tail River by 440 tons/year. This is about 6.5% of the total reduction needed to meet the goals of the Lower Otter Tail TMDL Implementation Plan. The Otter Tail River downstream of Orwell Dam is impaired due to sediment, with stream bank erosion being the primary contributor. This stream bank restoration will include the installation of woody toe debris benches and the installation of a vegetated slope along a 1,400 foot reach of the river.
Watershed based implementation funds will be used to target conservation practices utilizing the principles associated with Prioritize, Target and Measure as referenced in our Local Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan. Implementation Funds are budgeted for the installation of best management practices and to support staff capacity necessary to implement the plan.
This project will be the first of its kind Civic Engagement Cohort that focusses its efforts in an individual watershed. The Otter Tail River Watershed is scheduled to start a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) in 2016 and as a component of that project, the cohort will provide the civic engagement requirement. The cohort will be comprised of 25-30 individuals located throughout the watershed who represent a broad spectrum of resource managers and citizens who are familiar with water quality and watershed management.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate a Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Otter Tail watershed. The contractor will produce a HSPF watershed model application(s) that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). The contractor will clearly demonstrate that this model generates predicted output timeseries for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen that are consistent with available sets of observed data.
The Otter Tail River is impaired for turbidity. This project involves the installation of 45 side-inlet structures into Wilkin County Ditch 3-2 and 7-1 and 22 acres of buffer strips along the entire systems. Eleven miles of continuous berm will also be constructed along the ditch. When installed these water quality practices will become a permanent part of the ditch system and will be maintained by the ditch authority. These ditches outlet to the Otter Tail River just upstream from Breckenridge, MN. Together these water quality BMPs will reduce sediment loading by 1,375 tons/year.
The Straight River runs through Owatonna and is considered a priority water resource for the city. Untreated stormwater from city roofs, streets and parking lots are jeopardizing the water quality of river. Through this project, the city will install four rain gardens in city parks that will capture and rapidly absorb stormwater runoff from streets and driveways. The implentation of these rain gardens throughout the city will reduce the volume of stormwater entering the Straight River.
Minnesota Clean Water Funds will be used to complete a paleolimological study of the St. Louis River Estuary for the purpose of providing information critical to removing Beneficial Use Impairments in the St. Louis River Area of Concern. This project will reconstruct the biological (algal load and composition), geochemical (organic and inorganic), sediment, and mercury chronology to identify historical temporal and spatial variations in the St. Louis River Estuary in order to better understand the natural and anthropogenic drivers related to beneficial use impairments for the St.
The goal of this project is to better target restoration activities in the Cannon River watershed via a paleolimnological study of a selected set of the lakes addressed in the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the watershed. The goals are to better constrain lake phosphorus budgets, and determine the magnitude of ecological change experienced by a range of lake types.
The Partners for Clean Water program will enable community groups to take action to improve their water resources. Engaging citizens directly in project development and installation efforts provides immediate water quality benefits and develops a community of active stewardship. Installation of projects previously developed by Douglas County community groups will shift the currently dormant water quality protection efforts.
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 a cooperative effort including Cass Soil and Water Conservation District, the Association of Cass County Lakes (ACCL), and registered Homeowner Associations throughout Cass County. All of Cass Counties 514 lakes and streams eventually drain into the Upper Mississippi Watershed. Sediment and nutrient pollution continue to be a primary concern when addressing water quality protection issues.
The South Washington Watershed District has identified a series of priority sites to install filtration systems on aging storm sewer networks in the cities of Newport and St. Paul Park aimed at reducing sediment loads to the Mississippi River. SWWD is working with the cities to add stormwater treatment where there has historically been none. Prioritization has come from two recently completed subwatershed retrofit assessments, targeting specific storm sewer networks in the cities.
Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. (Wood) was selected for this project to conduct work in support of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) program. This project is a multi-phased pilot study to further validate and refine potential locations across Minnesota that may have historically been, or are currently, contaminated with PFAS. The primary objective is to evaluate potential PFAS locations, specifically compost sites, to determine presence or absence of PFAS at each site.
Perro Creek drains directly into the nutrient impaired St. Croix River. This project focuses on landowner outreach, design and installation of up to 10 bioinfiltration best management practices to reduce pollution from 85 acres of urban land draining directly into Perro Creek, then into Lake St. Croix with no water quality treatment. The installation of these practices will not only reduce stormwater volumes, but also the nutrients that are the root cause of the nutrient impairment in Lake St. Croix as well as the stormwater bacteria contributions to Perro Creek.
The purpose of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's monitoring activities is to determine the presence and concentration of pesticides in Minnesota's groundwater and surface water. Monitoring information is used to characterize and assess the extent of pesticide impacts to Minnesota's water resources.
This project will fund the stream restoration of a failed, 30-year old sediment control structure in the Deer Creek subwatershed using natural channel design methods to restore the stream to a stable state. Since the dam breached an estimated 78 tons of sediment is transported annually to the turbidity-impaired Deer Creek.
