Heavy rainfall washing soil and other substances into the Cedar River and its tributaries is to blame for high levels of contaminants.

Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Heavy rainfall washing soil and other substances into the Cedar River and its tributaries is to blame for high levels of contaminants.

Monday, at a meeting of Floodway Action Citizens’ Taskforce (F.A.C.T.S.), Bill Buckley, environmental health coordinator of Mower County presented the results of study conducted by the county from May 21, 2001 to Aug. 31, 2001. The study shows the river and its tributaries became more polluted after periods of very heavy rain.

According to Buckley, this pollution includes high levels of total suspended solids-dirt and algae "which give the water its color after periods of heavy rain" and "fecal coliform bacteria which is bacteria from the feces of warm-blooded animals."

"We monitored the rainfall throughout the summer and we had consistently higher rainfall before high levels of pollutants showed up in the river," he said. "Here in southern Minnesota, it does not take much to wash soil and particles into the river."

"The fecal coliform bacteria (in a similar study done in 2000) and in 2001, was twice the legal limit of 200 colonies per 100 milliliters," he explained. "In the tributaries of Mower County, the levels of bacteria are higher than what we should be coming in contact with or what we should be letting our children come in contact with."

"Farming practices are a big part of what’s affecting the water quality," he said. Many farms in the county are not using filtering strips to prevent runoff from their field into the tributaries of the Cedar River, he explained.

He said sampling has not continued and "there are no plans to continue the study this summer … the state is pretty well satisfied with these results." The 2000 study was funded by the state to see if the levels of suspended solids and fecal coliform bacteria were over the acceptable limits and the 2001 study was funded entirely by the county board because they wanted to know where the pollutants were coming from, Buckley said.

In the future, he said, "it would be nice to see the coliform levels come down below 200, but we’ll see faster, more immediate results with the solids if we can prevent soil run-off."

Mower County Commissioner Len Miller explained "once the problem is there, it takes a long time to reverse it."

Francis Skinness, of Austin, said he was interested in the F.A.C.T.S. meeting because "it involves all of us, but it directly affects my neighbors through the flooding of their homes and businesses."

"We confirmed what we already knew about the run-off from the city of Austin. I learned the fecal content (in the tributaries) was a lot higher than I ever thought," he said. "I live by Dobbins Creek and my granddaughter wades in that creek, but after tonight, she’s never going to again."

F.A.C.T.S. organizer Kyle Klaehn said he thinks part of the solution for cleaning up the Cedar River and its tributaries may lie in hiring a watershed coordinator. He explained a watershed coordinator would be responsible for coordinating potential grants through state and federal agencies and for implementing soil conservation programs.

"Studies the county did 10 years ago said we needed this, but nothing ever came of it," he said.