It was in 1992 that Governor Arne Carlson stood on the banks of the Minnesota River and declared, "Our goal is that within 10 years, our children will be swimming, fishing, picnicking and recreating at this river.”
At the time, Scott Kudelka, of the Water Resources Center at Minnesota State University, Mankato, said that such commentary would have brought about laughter by some observers. It was a feat viewed as far too great to accomplish in 100 years, much less 10.
Nearly 20 years later, the vision, as articulated by Carlson, continues to be a ways from manifesting in its entirety. But at the very least, the idea of a clean Minnesota River is no longer a laughing matter.
It is a real possibility, said Kudelka, and the changing mindsets, efforts and river environment are there to prove it.
On Friday Kudelka was invited to present these changes to the Hawk Creek Watershed board, drawing upon a report he recently collaborated to create known as, “Minnesota River Basin Trends.
Kudelka was joined by Forrest Peterson of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Rhonda Rae, Vice President of Donohue and Associates, the City of Willmar’s Engineering firm. The three were in attendance to inform the Hawk Creek board on separate issues, but together they served to detail how past, present and future efforts have or will come to alter the river environment.
Encompassing 15,000 square miles and stretching across 37 counties, the Minnesota River Basin drains nearly 20 percent of the state. Through it runs 335 miles of the Minnesota River as it meanders from its source in Big Stone Lake to its confluence with the Mississippi at Fort Snelling.
Prior to European settlement Minnesota was home to 18 million acres of wild prairie, 2,000 to 3,000 miles of forest and vast inundations of wetlands. Altering the land for human habitation, industry and agriculture, the state now contains but one percent of the former prairie, 2 percent of the forest and 10 percent of the wetlands.
The result is a contrast between $4.4 billion, or so, in annual agricultural state trade surpluses, and an environment that has been eroded, depleted of wildlife and that in many instances has become toxic.
Using federal Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program standards, 336 rivers have been designated as impaired waters in the Minnesota River Basin, said Kudelka. The majority of a long list of pollutants have found their way into the river through agriculture, but business and municipal structures such as waste water treatment plants have also played a major role.
Over the years the contaminants have built up to make the Minnesota River unsafe to swim in, the fish ill-advised to eat in large quantities and are causing Lake Pepin, located south of the cities, to accumulate sediment at 10 times its normal rate – amongst other issues.
But as Kudelka pointed out, efforts to mitigate pollutants and protect sensitive habitats have come a long way since the earlier portion of last century, and particularly since the 1970s when Agricultural Secretary Earl “get big or get out” Butz, oversaw a philosophy of farming ‘fence row to fence row.’
Kudelka said that recent data compiled from 1999-2006 show that streams within the Minnesota River Basin are increasing in water clarity due to the adoption of such policies as Best Management Practices (BMP) and conservation easements. From 1998 to 2002 alone, Kudelka said 100,000 acres have been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Easement Program, which retires critically sensitive land permanently.
“I would call the CREP program probably the biggest success story,” he said.
In addition to improvements in the agricultural realm, Kudelka pointed out that upgrades to the majority of the Minnesota River Basin’s 152 water treatment plants have cut phosphorus, which create algae blooms detrimental to fish habitats, by nearly 40 percent from 2005 to 2008.
Rae, who was in attendance to provide the Hawk Creek Watershed Board with an overview of the new Willmar Municipal Waste Water Treatment Plant, provided a close proximity example of how these changes were taking place. She said the amounts of phosphorus released into the Minnesota River by the old waste water plant had been in excess of TMDL limits set by the MPCA, whereas the new levels fell well below and constituted an 85 percent phosphorus reduction. In fact, Rae said that the overall purity of the treated water leaving the plant, while not intended for consumption, was clean enough to fish and swim in. Had it not been cost prohibitive, the City might have even piped the water back to municipalities where it would be used to water parks and the like, she said.
The increase in animal habitat and decrease in run-off from programs like CREP, combined with chemical reductions such as phosphorus, are permitting the resurgence of the number and variety of fish found in the river while also facilitating a return of ducks, otters, pheasants and eagles in the watershed habitat.
Utilizing information gathered from river surveys, Kudelka stated that the types of fish found in the Minnesota increased from 54 in the early 80s to 60 in 2005.
In example, he pointed out that “Sucker fish needs clean water to reproduce, recently it has been reproducing in the Minnesota River for the first time in forty years.”
Eagles are another success story. With the restoration of the river valley habitat, the birds have increased the number of nests from approximately 100 in the early 70s to nearly a thousand today.
MPCA Public Information Officer Forrest Peterson provided a brief presentation outlining how the MPCA, conservationists and agricultural producers are working together to continue these positive trends.
“Years ago the MPCA and Department of Agriculture were competing agencies, now we’re trying to work together,” he said.
One of the major focuses of the agency has revolved around the increased sediment in Lake Pepin. Peterson noted that earlier in the week an event known as the “Friendship Tour” brought farmers from western Minnesota to the Lake Pepin region to meet with representatives of the MPCA and area landowners so to see firsthand the region’s plight. A trip bringing landowners to the farms of western Minnesota is set for later this year.
“We’re trying to find the things we agree on and start by working on those,” Peterson said.
Still striving to build critical mass, the Minnesota River Watershed remains severely impaired, but is also becoming a burgeoning success story. It may be another 20 years before the river is again safe to swim in, but the evidence indicates that efforts are moving the environment in a positive direction.
