Minnesota Water Resources Conference - Water Resources Center ...

Poster Session 4:45–5:45
BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
Tuesday, Monday, October 27 23
Carver County TMDLs: Sharing Our Slice of the TMDL Pie
Madeline Banschbach, Carver County Land & Water Services, mbanschbach@co.carver.mn.us; and Tim Sundby, Carver County
Water Technician
Beginning in 2003, Carver County decided to take a front-of-the-line approach to complete nearly 20 TMDLs.
This poster displays the timeline of two approved TMDLs from start through Implementation Plan. These
timelines offer an insight to the Implementation Plan strategy and time necessary to complete a TMDL. Carver
County takes a progressive role in the Implementation plan hoping to speed up the time it takes to determine
if pollution reduction strategies are working. Both TMDL Implementation Plans follow a similar set of methods
to reduce pollutant loads consisting of three steps. Within the Fecal TMDL, the entire watershed was broken up
into sub-watersheds and strategies were focused on priority sub-watersheds. This allowed funds to be focused
in problem areas. Second, the major pollutant loading sources were addressed in each sub-priority watershed.
Lastly, incentive programs were created in order to encourage participation in reducing loads. Similarly, in
the Burandt Lake’s Implementation Plan, locations for urban stormwater best management practices (BMPs)
were first chosen and then methods to reduce major loading sources were chosen. Lastly, incentive programs
for lakeshore restoration served as outreach and encouraged participation in reducing loads. This poster gives
informative examples of expected timelines and Implementation strategies.
Development of an Ecological Assessment Method for Minnesota Lakes
Marcus Beck, University of Minnesota, beckx226@umn.edu; Lorin Hatch, HDR Engineering Inc.; and Bruce Vondracek,
University of Minnesota
Current methods of ecological health assessment of lakes within the state of Minnesota are not adequate for
meeting the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act and assessing the condition of affected biota within these
aquatic systems. The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) offers an effective ecological health assessment method for
Minnesota lakes. The objective of this study is to provide a general framework for ecological health assessment
of Minnesota lakes with the successful development and implementation of an aquatic macrophyte-based IBI.
The macrophyte IBI will play a complementary role to the Minnesota fish-based IBI developed by Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources personnel. The macrophyte-based IBI will be developed from existing
MNDNR macrophyte point intercept surveys and will follow the general framework of the Aquatic Macrophyte
Community Index. The 2008 field season will be followed by development and initial analyses of discriminatory
abilities of the index.
NEMO Outdoors! Creating More Effective Water Resource Education & Outreach for Local Decision
Makers
John Bilotta, University of Minnesota Extension, jbilotta@umn.edu; and Jenny Winkelman, Mississippi Watershed
Management Organization
The Northland NEMO Program, together with the U of MN Extension and various local partners, has
instrumented innovative and effective education and outreach to local decision makers and elected officials
by getting them out and on the water resources they manage. Programs like “A View From the Big River” have
created rich learning environments for NEMO based programs that include hands-on, interactive simulations
such as the Watershed Game. A guided tour component demonstrates water quality monitoring programs
and the results of project investment by the local unit. Another component has included an activity for local
decision makers to calculate impervious surface area. This presentation will reflect on the various components
of these “on the water” programs, how they were developed, what they offer to the participants, the effectiveness
in achieving desired outcomes, and how participants have applied what they have learned.
Minnesota Water Resources Conference, October 27–28, 20078 36