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The Basin Alliance for the Lower Mississippi in Minnesota will meet Wednesday, Dec. 21, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the MPCA office in Rochester at 18 Wood Lake Drive S.E.
Agenda as follows:
- 9 a.m. BALMM A.N. (after Norman), Shaina Keseley, MPCA Watershed Planner
- 9:05 a.m. 303(d) draft list public meeting/open house, Justin Watkins and Howard Markus, MPCA
- 10:30 a.m. Break
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10:45: a.m. Soil quality: Measures and benefits, Don Reicosky, retired ARS Scientist
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11:30 a.m. Soil quality and hydrology: Applying what we know to practices and policies, Norman Senjem, Zumbro Watershed Partnership
- Noon Lunch (ordering pizza)
- 12:30 p.m. Retirement gathering for Tex Hawkins of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency
- 1:30 p.m. Adjourn
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The MPCA is pleased to announce that Shaina Keseley, watershed project manager in the Rochester office, will lead the agency’s work in the Lower Mississippi River Basin as BALMM coordinator.
Keseley has been a project manager with MPCA for four years. Her watershed project work has been mainly in the Root River and Cannon River, and more recently in the Whitewater River. Before coming to the MPCA, Shaina worked for almost three years for Lake County in Illinois as a Water Quality Specialist examining the status of the 160-plus lakes in the county. Prior to that, Shaina graduated from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Science, with thesis work focusing on ultraviolet radiation effects on algae in the mountain lakes of southwest Montana.
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Keseley is married with a 2-year old daughter and enjoys spending time outside, preferably next to the water, whether lake or stream. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and camping with her family and friends.
Keseley is excited to serve as new BALMM coordinator and hopes to bring new energy to the group and help keep BALMM thriving.
The MPCA is proposing to add several streams in southeast Minnesota to the impaired waters list, meaning the streams fail to meet state water quality standards. Each watershed includes many listings of various types. New listings in southeast Minnesota are focused in the Root, Mississippi River-Lake Pepin and Cedar-Shell Rock watersheds because they have recently been the subjects of intensive monitoring and assessment.
The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states to adopt water-quality standards to protect waters from pollution. These standards define how much of a pollutant can be in the water and still allow it to meet designated uses, such as drinking water, fishing and swimming.
The standards are set on a wide range of pollutants, including bacteria, nutrients, turbidity and mercury. A water body is “impaired” if it fails to meet one or more water quality standards.
To identify and restore impaired waters, Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to:
- Assess all waters of the state to determine if they meet water-quality standards.
- List waters that do not meet standards (also known as the 303d List) and update every even-numbered year.
- Conduct TMDL studies in order to set pollutant reduction goals needed to restore waters.
The MPCA submits the list to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval following an extensive public comment process.
Only a fraction of Minnesota’s waters have been monitored and assessed so far for impairments. The MPCA has initiated or completed water monitoring in 21 percent of the state’s 81 major watersheds. The state is on track to monitor all of the state’s watersheds on a 10-year schedule.
The proposed 2012 Impaired Waters list and methodology for listing will be available on the MPCA's Web site prior to the public notice period from Jan. 23-Feb. 27, 2012. Impaired waters can be reviewed in advance of the meeting by using MPCA’s IWAV. Data used for assessments can be reviewed via the Environmental Data Access Portal. Howard Markus and Justin Watkins of the MPCA will summarize and review new listings on the 2012 list at the Dec. 21 BALMM meeting.
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A regional strategy to improve soil quality should be a core component of solutions to natural resource problems ranging from water quality and flooding to global warming and sustainable food production, according to soil scientist Don Reicosky, recently retired from a 30-year career with the USDA research station at Morris, Minnesota.
Reicosky will explain just how the living soil plays such an important role in an address to BALMM at the December meeting.
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"Nobody can put the pieces together on this topic better than Reicosky,” says Norman Senjem, recently retired from the MPCA where he served as coordinator for BALMM. He now works as planning coordinator for the Zumbro Watershed Partnership.
Dr. Reicosky spent years studying soil strictly from an agronomic perspective before turning to studies on soil carbon and soil organic matter – the living and once-living component of soils.
Soils with high organic matter content, especially on the surface, have higher rates of water infiltration, more aeration and increased capacity for water storage.
“Increasing soil organic matter may be a practical way of reducing water runoff and increasing water storage on the landscape while keeping land in crop production,” said Senjem. Reicosky will describe how soil organic matter is generated, how it can be destroyed, and land-use practices to increase soil organic matter content, such as perennial crops, cover crops, and no till farming methods.
Senjem will follow Reicosky’s presentation with a discussion of how policies, programs and projects could be directed toward the goal of increased organic matter at the watershed scale.
Arthur “Tex” Hawkins is one of the better known and best liked natural resource management professionals in southeast Minnesota. In his work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, out of Winona, Tex has worked tirelessly to engage watershed partners in the creative process of habitat improvement for wildlife in southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa and elsewhere. He brings undying enthusiasm, a treasure trove of knowledge and a sunny disposition to his job, which clearly has coincided with his calling in life.
Tex has strong links to conservationists past and present, including his father, Arthur Hawkins, who worked with Aldo Leopold on the Coon Creek, Wisconsin, watershed project. He never lost the knack for observing nature which he perfected as a DNR state park naturalist in northern Minnesota. Tex has maintained ties to Costa Rica, where as a Peace Corps volunteer he helped to establish the country’s first national park. Tex was instrumental in establishing the Driftless Area Initiative, and has been a faithful supporter of a host of watershed projects small and large, including BALMM.
Tex retired from the USFWS earlier this month. We are privileged to honor the event with a potluck luncheon following the BALMM meeting Dec. 21. PLEASE JOIN US.
The MPCA is updating its BALMM webpages and documents. The original list of members includes the following agencies and organizations. Please email Shaina Keseley, BALMM coordinator, if your group is missing from the list or no longer a member.
Area 7 Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation Districts Association
Bluffland Environmental Watch
Mississippi River Citizen Commission
St. Mary’s University Resource Studies Center
To submit an idea for the February 2012 BALMM meeting or newsletter, please contact Donna Rasmussen or Shaina Keseley:
Donna Rasmussen
Chairperson, BALMM
Administrator, Fillmore SWCD
900 Washington St. NW
Preston, MN 55965
507-765-3878, ext. 3
Shaina Keseley
BALMM Coordinator
MPCA - Rochester
507-206-2622
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