Minnesota Removes Seven Waters From Impaired List, Adds 297

In 2002, Tanners Lake was placed on the state's list of impaired waters because of high nutrient levels.

Actions by the Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District to treat stormwater emptying into the lake lowered the nutrient levels in Tanners Lake. Later, monitoring showed the nutrient levels were low enough to remove the lake from the impaired waters list and it was taken off the list in 2004 and is now fit for swimming.

More impaired waters got on the monitoring and cleanup list in 2006 when Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the Clean Water Legacy Act, giving state agencies $31 million to assess and start cleaning up the state's polluted waters.

In addition to cleaning up polluted lakes and rivers, the funds will also be used to protect waters that are still clean.

The investment is making a difference, state environmental officials say.

As of January 1, 2008, seven water bodies have been removed from the impaired waters list because of effective efforts to clean them up.

Of the seven water bodies, three were removed from the list when major wastewater treatment plants upgraded their facilities to reduce the amount of ammonia going into rivers.

The Red River of the North will be delisted in 2008 after the cities of Moorhead and Fargo inNorth Dakota made upgrades or changes at their wastewater treatment facilities.

A portion of the Redwood River will be delisted in 2008 following upgrades at the Marshall wastewater treatment facility, and 11 miles of the Chippewa River were delisted in 2006 after Montevideo upgraded its wastewater treatment plant.

Three more rivers were delisted after feedlots and septic systems were upgraded.

The Clearwater River was delisted in 2006 after feedlot and wastewater treatment facility upgrades resulted in the water body meeting water quality standards for fecal coliform.

Big Swan Lake in Minnesota. (Photo courtesy Todd County)

A portion of the Swan River, from the headwaters at Big Swan Lake to the Mississippi River, was delisted in 2006 after a major feedlot improved its operations.

Cedar Creek was delisted in 2006 after feedlot and septic system upgrades resulted in the waterbody meeting ammonia water quality standards.

Numerous other waters across Minnesota need attention, but more time and money is being invested to clean up lakes and rivers than any other period in state history, officials say.

The Clean Water Legacy Act funding has allowed study of more than 400 impaired lakes and rivers across the state to determine how much pollution they can take each day and still meet federal water quality standards. Called Total Maximum Daily Load studies, these analyses make it possible to write cleanup plans for the impaired waterways.

Shannon Lotthammer, who oversees water quality monitoring for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said extra monitoring means more will be known about water quality in Minnesota in the coming years.

"New monitoring data has shown that 19 waterbodies weren't as polluted as we initially thought, so those have been removed from the impaired waters list. But new information also means that more lakes and rivers will be added to the list," she said.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will submit the 2008 Impaired Waters List to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this spring, which adds 147 new lakes and 150 more river reaches to the list.

Lotthammer said this does not necessarily mean that Minnesota's lakes and rivers are becoming more polluted. Instead, it means there is better information about the water resources. "Once we have the water quality information, we can work with our partners to assess and clean up waters that are impaired, much like we did with the seven waterbodies that have been delisted."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.