Water quality grant to protect Lake Washington
Jun. 26—MANKATO — Le Sueur County will receive $408,187 to reduce blue-green algae blooms in Lake Washington through increasing water storage capacity, thanks to one of three water storage grants from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.
The grant, which is called the Lake Washington Patterson Watershed Storage Project, is part of a long term effort to fight rapid water flow accelerated by climate change that causes erosion and poor water quality.
Changes in landscape factors such as precipitation patterns, land use and drainage have led to a loss of water storage. This means that too much water flows too quickly into area rivers, which in turn leads to erosion of riverbanks, sending sediments and the nutrients and pollutants that come with them into other bodies of water.
Over the last decade, climate change has accelerated these changes, as more intense and frequent rainfall results in negative impacts on agriculture and infrastructure, such as shoreline loss that can lead to road closures along affected rivers.
"I know we have a lot of support all around because these impacts are happening everywhere, and we're just trying to find ways to work with it," said manager of the Le Sueur County Soil and Water Conservation District Mike Schultz.
Schultz said a structure covering 150 acres will be built to hold water long enough to allow sediments to settle and be sent into a ditch system instead of traveling into the lake.
"You're not just pushing everything into one location at a fast time, which is where we see a lot of our ravines and bluffs starting to give away," Schultz said.
Once it's functioning, the water storage system will prevent 274 pounds of phosphorus, 8,224 pounds of nitrogen and 44.9 tons of total suspended solids from entering the lake every year, Schultz said. The goal is for this to keep blue-green algae from blooming for over two weeks per year.
The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources funding also will benefit Lyon County and Area II Minnesota River Basin Projects, Inc. in addition to Le Sueur. In total, all three governments will receive $843,851.
The Minnesota River Congress began prioritizing resolving water problems in the Minnesota River Basin six years ago and have since been lobbying for funding toward conservation and water quality improvement.
Coordinator/facilitator of the River Congress Scott Sparlin said these grants represent a positive opportunity, but that they "need to keep the ball rolling."
The Legislature passed $2 million toward BWSR to develop the large-scale water storage program in 2021, and a second round of grants is expected to be passed during next year's session.
Sparlin said he had also expected additional funding from the state's budget surplus of $9.25 billion before the end of this year's Legislative session on May 23. Sparlin said he hopes the Legislature will call a special session so this funding can be passed.
"We know that if we can get enough projects on the ground over time, we're gonna start seeing differences," Schultz said. "We've got to start somewhere and this is where we're at."
