by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
People living in Sartell and the Sartell Watershed area are encouraged to attend a public input meeting from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, at the Sartell Community Center.
The name of the meeting, which is sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy.
The Sartell Watershed, which is part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, is within parts of these counties: Stearns, Benton, Morrison, Todd and Crow Wing. Some of the bigger cities in that area include Sartell, St. Stephen, Avon, Albany, Rice, Royalton, Holdingford, Little Falls and Pierz. The waterways of the watershed include Platte Lake, Platte River, Skunk River, Little Rock Creek, Little Rock Lake, Bunker Hill Creek, Watab River, Spunk Creek, Two Rivers Lake, Little Two River and, of course, the Mississippi River. All of those waterways are interconnected one way or another.
The MPCA wants input from residents of the watershed and would like them to become aware of the problems and concerns about the watershed. The report to be presented at the public meeting will summarize watershed conditions, identify water-quality concerns, prioritize resource and establish key restoration and protection strategies for the area. The MPCA will also prepare a report of citizen concerns and suggestions offered at the public meeting.
Some of the major threats to the watershed include loss of shoreline buffers because of developments; large amounts of phosphorus, sediment and bacteria to surface waters; contamination by unwanted nutrients, including from stormwater runoff and loss of biodiversity due to competition from invasive species.
Just last year, a major draw-down project was completed at Little Rock Lake near Rice and the stretch of the Mississippi north of Sartell. Those waterways are connected, and the build-up of unwanted nutrients in the lake, mainly phosphorus, threatened the health of both the lake and that part of the river.
According to the MPCA, the Sartell Watershed is unique in many respects. For instance, the elevation of the Mississippi River drops 6.5 feet per mile from Little Falls (just north of the watershed) to Royalton. The watershed is in the North Central Hardwood Forest eco-region of Minnesota. The area of the watershed is mainly agricultural, and about 96 percent of it is privately owned. Land uses include grass/pasture/hay (35 percent), row crops (29 percent), forest (19 percent) and wetlands (9 percent).
