Jackson County’s Okabena Creek and Lake Flaherty, along with five other lakes in the Des Moines River Basin, are set to join the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s 2010 list of impaired waters, bringing the state total to 3,049 on 1,205 lakes and 436 rivers.
Escherichia coli in Okabena Creek and indications of excessive chemical nutrients in Lake Flaherty were the reasons for the two local additions. Bloody Lake and Lime Lake in Murray County, Lake Okamanpeedan in Martin County, Talcot Lake in Cottonwood County and Lake Yankton in Lyon County were also added because of excess nutrients.
Updated every two years, bodies of water can be listed for more than one pollutant or reach, and the 2010 draft list is open for public comment between Oct. 19 and Nov. 19 before the MPCA sends it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval.
“Monitoring the state’s waters and determining their health is an involved process,” said Shannon Lotthammer, MPCA manager. “We first gather at least two years of monitoring data, then analyze that data to determine if the waters meet state and federal standards for swimming, boating and fishing. If they don’t, the waters are listed as impaired and undergo further study to determine how they can be restored to a healthy condition.”
Only a fraction of Minnesota’s waters have been monitored and assessed so far for impairments. The MPCA has initiated or completed water monitoring in 21 percent of the state’s 81 major watersheds. The state is on track to monitor all of the state’s watersheds on a 10-year schedule.
Already listed in past years are the Des Moines River between Windom and Jackson (1994) for ammonia and dissolved oxygen and Heron Lake (2002) for excess nutrients, plus a number of others outside the county in the river basin.
Of the 3,049 impairments on the state list, the MPCA has already intensively studied and initiated restoration plans for 1,158. Many of the studies were completed with the active involvement and leadership of local partners. A water body is removed from the list only after it has been restored and meets all state and federal water quality standards. Nearly two-thirds of the new funding appropriated from the constitutional amendment passed last year will be used on water quality restoration and protection activities for the current two-year budget period.
Also, in a round of funding approved by the MPCA last month through the federal Clean Water Act, the Heron Lake Watershed District will receive $16,500 for a demonstration project on reducing sediment in Heron Lake.
Recent accomplishments in local water quality improvements include the just-finished draft of the Total Maximum Daily Load study providing an understanding of the primary factors responsible for 33 impairments on the West Fork Des Moines River and Heron Lake. The study got its start in late 2003 and was funded by a $71,021 grant.
The Heron Lake Watershed District has also enlisted landowners since 2006 to change tillage practices to prevent further pollution, through a $28,200 grant; replaced intakes since 2006 to reduce runoff, through a $36,000 grant; assisted more tillage practice changes in Alba Township since 2007, through a $40,800 grant; provided new cost-share, incentive and loan programs for best management practices since 2008, through a nearly $429,000 grant and $500,000 loan; and continued a conservation tillage demonstration plot in 2008, through a $20,547 grant.
For more information on the proposed 2010 impaired waters list, visit the MPCA’s Web site at
www.pca.state.mn.us/water/tmdl/tmdl-303dlist.html, or submit questions, comments or requests for additional information to Howard Markus at MPCA, 520 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, MN, 55155; by phone at (651) 757-2551 or e-mail at
howard.markus@pca.state.mn.us.
Click here for the Jackson County portion of the state's watershed achievements annual report or
here for the full statewide report.
