Watershed Achievements Report

Watershed Minnesota River Achievements Basin Report 2008
Watershed Achievements Report Statewide 2015
Lower Minnesota River Watershed
Minnesota River Tributary Phosphorus
and Flow BMPs
This project was initially a partnership between Scott
County, the Scott Watershed Management Organization
(WMO), the Scott SWCD, BWSR and the NRCS. Project
boundaries were subsequently amended to include the
headwaters of Sand Creek in Rice and Le Sueur Counties
and the respective SWCDs as partners.
The project area consisted of the Sand Creek and Roberts
Creek watersheds, and bluff areas directly tributary to
the Minnesota River in southwest Scott County. The
Minnesota River, Sand Creek and many of the lakes
located in the Sand Creek watershed are considered
water quality impaired. Impairments include aquatic
life due to excessive turbidity, and recreation due to
excessive nutrients. A number of studies had been
completed to diagnose problems and identify pollutant
sources. This project focused on using the information
generated from these studies (including the Lower
Minnesota River DO TMDL study and implementing
identified BMPs.
Agriculture is the primary land use in the project area
and BMPs promoted included water and sediment basins
(WASCOBs), grade control, terraces, grassed and lined
waterways, nutrient management, alternative (rock)
tile inlets, wetland restoration and filter strips. Over the
project duration 84 applications were certified complete
resulting in159 BMPs. The estimated receiving water
pollutant reduction from the BMPs totals 2,115 tons/
year of sediment and 2,470 lbs/year of total phosphorus.
In June of 2014 the area was hit by two large storms
totaling about 14 inches of precipitation. The result was
a Presidential Disaster Declaration. Inspections of the
installed practices has been started but not completed.
Of the 21 inspections complete 15 found damage.
Goals
• Accelerate the implementation of BMPs, specifically
targeting 150 acres of filter strip, 25 to 30 acres of
wetland restoration, 3 to 5 grade/water control
structures, 5 to 10 tile intake controls, and an
unspecified number of nutrient management plans.
• Monitor water quality improvements and evaluate and
document pollutant load reductions created by the
project.
• Effectively administer the project.
Results that count
• The filter strip and wetland restoration goals were
not met with 80 acres, and 17 acres completed
respectively. However, the grade/water control
structures and alternative tile intake goals were greatly
exceeded at 60 structures and 79 intakes, respectively.
In addition, eight nutrient management plans were
written. Estimated pollution reductions are 2115 tons/
year of sediment and 2470 pounds/year of phosphorus.
• This goal was met with monitoring completed in 2013
at 5 sites plus the Metropolitan Council’s site on Sand
Creek in Jordan. Metropolitan Council also completed
pollutant load calculations using the monitoring data.
Unfortunately variability in the data was high due to an
eight inch precipitation event that fell on a portion of
the watershed and the coefficients of variation for the
TSS calculations were high meaning that the resulting
areal loads for TSS should be used with caution.
Pollutant reduction estimates were also completed for
all of the BMPs.
• The project was effectively administered as evidenced
by the installation and certification of 159 BMPs, and
BMP implementation cost finishing within 2% of the
amount budgeted for BMPs.
Lessons learned/Recommendations
A number of lessons have been learned over the last
few years. Most of these were not unique to the grant,
and were learned from a combination of activities. They
include:
1. To build on success.
2. Momentum is important and builds further
momentum.
3. Momentum is as important as targeting.
4. Since momentum leads to further momentum it can
also pull efforts away from targeting, and targeting
requires on-going discipline from staff.
5. More implementation is needed. The project enabled
the installation 159 BMPs. This is only about one BMP
for every two square miles of the project area.
6. If you provide good service people come back
with additional applications (note that many of
the applications approved came from repeat land
owners).
7. Relationship building and trust is key.
8. Annually revising the docket based on the past years’
experience is important for adapting.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency www.pca.state.mn.us 71