Storm Water Storage Initiative and Legislation

We have reached a critical point of water management in Minnesota, certainly not limited to anywhere in the state, but especially evident in the Minnesota River Watershed. Due to land use practices both urban and rural we have now reached the point that if we do not begin to both temporarily and permanently store more water, we will continue to experience increased collective societal and business losses at an unacceptable rate putting many Minnesotan’s at risk. Exacerbating this condition is the climatic trend and future prediction of increased rainfalls in short periods of time. The combination of all these factors leads first to small and medium stream bank erosion. The dislodged sediments combined with increased flows enable sediment and nutrient delivery to our lakes, major tributaries and main stems where they then leapfrog downstream all the way to the Mississippi, Lake Pepin and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.

We are a water blessed state and the time to invest in a major water storage initiative is upon us. The compelling data concerning the need especially in the Minnesota River Basin has been thoroughly studied and is well documented. The fact is, most of society has observed and intuitively known this for a long time. We have engineered ourselves into this condition and we also have the technical know how and knowledge to mitigate it. We now need the significant resources to accomplish the goal. In many cases our government (all of us) paid to create the challenges we are faced with. The time is now for all of us to come together for the greater good of future generations of Minnesotan’s. This is not an investment we can ignore, or we will pay much higher prices in short years to come.

It is our belief that we need specifically targeted temporary and permanent water storage funds to be directed to those who implement such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Watershed Districts and participating willing landowners.

With this letter please be advised that I wholeheartedly support the efforts of the Minnesota River Congress, multiple partners and cooperators to work with state legislators, national legislators and other elected officials to create a voluntary government initiative that has significant resources targeted for temporary and permanent water storage on the landscape.

Signed

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