Work continues on completion of four large projects to reduce sediment from the Poplar River. They are funded through a $687,032 Great Lakes Commission grant that required a $147,245 landowner match. Cook County Soil & Water Conservation District Manager Kerrie Fabius told the Poplar River Management Board on October 8 that the deadline for completion of these projects is September 2013.
The latest project will involve moving a Caribou Highlands drainage pipe off the top of the Megaslump where a lot of erosion has taken place. Some of the erosion is from moisture wicking off the pipe and dripping onto the riverbank.
LHB of Duluth has been hired to re-design the way the drainage enters the river. They are looking into putting a pipe vertically into the ground about 50 feet from the top of the slope and then horizontally to the river’s edge.
The water entering the Poplar River from this pipe has been treated and meets Minnesota Pollution Control Agency discharge standards. The process of treating wastewater from Caribou Highlands is overseen by Northeast Technical Services of Virginia.
Setting the standard
The MPCA continues to work on setting a new and different kind of standard for sediment in the river, called a Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL). It will need to be submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a process that will include a public comment period and a tribal comment period that will solicit a review by Grand Portage.
This will be one of the first TMDLs to come out of this geographical area, said Karen Evens of the Duluth MPCA office.
Landowner partnership on three rivers
Andrew Slade of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership in Duluth is working with landowners under a Lake Superior Coastal Program grant called River People. The project will bring together three sets of North Shore landowners who want to improve the quality of the rivers near them.
Under this grant, landowners will be collaborating to improve three rivers: the Flute Reed, the Poplar, and the Knife. They are all considered impaired because of turbidity (sediment). The project will include educating both landowners and the public.
People who live near waterways are proving to be the best stewards of those waterways, Slade said.
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