On October 5, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency unveiled its 10-year watershed monitoring system to a room full of people gathered at the Cook County courthouse. Presenters and those on hand to take comments included (L-R) Karen Evens, Biz Clark, Jesse Anderson, John Sanberg, Illena Berg and Jeff Jasperson. (Not pictured – Stacia Grayson).
Since 2007 Minnesota’s watersheds both large and small have been looked at and studied in a far more comprehensive way then they were in the past, Karen
Evens said to about 20 people gathered in the Cook County commissioners’ room on Friday morning, October 5.
According to Evens, a water quality specialist who works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) in Duluth, this approach involves a 10-year cycle of monitoring lakes, rivers, streams and watersheds and involves partnering with local, county and tribal governments, private citizens and lake associations to help get all of the work done.
Minnesota has 10 major drainage basins, said Evens, and these form 81 smaller units called watersheds. The watersheds correspond to the drainage of tributary or lake systems.
Overall the state has over 92,000 miles of streams and rivers and an estimated 9.3 million acres of wetlands, and, Evens said, “the rivers play an important role not only as a source of clean water, but also help gsustain our tourism, recreation, commerce hand other industries for the state’s citizens gand visitors.”
Primary goals include measuring and ecomparing regional differences in water equality and determining long-term trends. t Data gathered will be used to assist ewith impaired waters assessments, watershed and quality studies and water quality studies and reports, watershed modeling efforts, and to measure the ongoing effectiveness t e of major watershed protection and restoration plans.
The system will help the agency better eidentify water quality problems and work with communities to develop effective pollutant e reduction strategies, Evens said. t In 2007, the MPCA and its partner began implementing this approach, Evens msaid. n
. “It was recommended to us by the nClean Water Council who got its direction efrom the Minnesota Legislature. It follows nthe goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act for restoring and protecting America’s waters,” hnoted Evens.
Joining Evens for the presentation were lfour of her colleagues at MPCA: Stacia rGrayson, a load monitoring specialist;
Jesse Anderson, who monitors lakes; John oSandberg, who does biological monitoring; , and Jeff Jasperson, who does stressor
,identification. e a Although this approach is fairly new, in Minnesota volunteers have helped monitor clarity and water levels in streams or mrivers since 1998. These volunteers also track and measure rainfall at their homes. tThe data is taken over a long period of ttime and is used to get an understanding of the overall health trends of Minnesota Rivers.
Cook County lakes selected for the study are: Ball Club, Barker, Binagami, Bouder, Cascade, Christine, Devilfish, East oTwin, Homer, Lichen, Toohey, White Pine, Clearwater, Esther, Kemo, Little Cascade, nMistletoe, Musqhash, Pine Mountain, Richey, and Star.
But not all those lakes might be monitored.
“It may get slightly adjusted because it’s a lot of lakes. We will look at working with Cook County Soil & Water and the lake associations to help us. If we don’t get enough staff we will re-adjust the list,” Evens said.
The same is true for rivers in Cook County. If enough help isn’t forthcoming, the list will be pared down. Rivers targeted for study are Caribou, Cascade, Cross, Kimball, Kadunce, Pigeon, Poplar, Temperance, Two Island, North and South Brule, Devil Track, Flutereed and, said Evens, “some of their tributaries, smaller streams like Elbow that flow into Devil Track.
“When all of this finalized we will have a map of this on our website and hopefully on the county website. This will happen as soon as January of 2013.
“This is a more intensive approach of gathering samples than we have used in the past and we intend to do it in a shorter period of time. We will work with a twoyear baseline on chemical and biological testing. When we look those sample we will ask, ‘Are we seeing healthy conditions? Or are there issues that need looking into and some follow-up to do?’”
In 2014 MPCA will begin its Rainy Lake Basin Study. Cook County lakes involved in that study include Loon, Tucker, Saganaga, Sea Gull and Gunflint lakes. “We will work with the lake associations up there at that time,” Evens said.
Larger lakes—500 acres or more—typically with public access, will be studied by MPCA staff. Water samples will be taken once a month from June through September over a two-year period at the deepest part of the lake.
MPCA staff will study 75-100 lakes throughout the state, said John Sandberg, who added, “I sample 15 to 20 lakes a year. We do not monitor lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We contract with the University of Minnesota to monitor those waters with satellite imagery. One can infer a lot from the satellite imagery about how clear the water is.”
Some of the main things looked at are the level of algae and phosphorous in the water. Sandberg said, “Phosphorous is the engine that drives the productivity of the lake.”
Biological monitors also study fish and aquatic invertebrates (e.g. insect larvae, snails, crayfish, and leeches) and plant life. They look at the changes in water temperature, composition of river bottoms, stream flow, and various water chemicals to help them determine the health of a stream, river, lake or wetland.
Grayson said she samples eight locations: the Poplar, Baptism, Sucker, Nemadji, St. Louis and Cloquet rivers in the Lake Superior Basin and the Vermillion and Kawishi in the Rainy Basin.
“I also review and manage the lab data and calculate pollutant loads and flow weighted mean concentrations for total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorous, (TP), dissolved orthophosphate (DOP), nitrate plus nitrate nitrogen and total kjeldahl nitrogen,” Grayson said.
The first year of the study will be 2013, and during that year biological, flow and chemical testing/monitoring will be done. The second-year data will be analyzed to see if there are any stressors to the water that would negatively affect plants, wildlife and marine life. During the third and fourth years, Evens said, “modeling and planning and even restoration work like we have done at Poplar River could start taking place.”
“For all of this to work, the public will have to help with monitoring,” Evens said.
If you are interested in volunteering or to learn more about the program, contact Illena Berg, Cook County water plan coordinator, at 387-3648, or go to www.pca. state,mn.us/cmp to learn about MPCA’s Citizen Stream or Lake Monitoring, or Wetland Health Evaluation programs.
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