Minnesotans value clean water and want our rivers, lakes and streams to be clean, safe and healthy. In a recent bipartisan poll commissioned by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, 84% of Minnesotans said they were “very” or “somewhat concerned” about pollution of the Mississippi River. They have good reason to be concerned. Unfortunately, the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers are impaired with excess sediments that pollute the river and harm aquatic life, navigation and recreation. This excess sediment is also causing Lake Pepin to fill in at 10 times in natural rate.

To address this, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has completed draft cleanup plans (called "total maximum daily load studies" or “TMDLs”) for both rivers. FMR supports the plans’ overall pollution reduction goals — if achieved, they would greatly improve the overall health and vitality of the river’s ecology. However, the plans suffer from fundamental flaws that would certainly undermine their effectiveness if not corrected.

In order to achieve the goals set forth by these cleanup plans, the MPCA must amend the Mississippi and Minnesota river cleanup plans to:

• Hold polluters accountable

  While cities and point sources are required to meet the clean-up goals, field agriculture operations are given purely voluntary reductions with no effective accountability mechanism in place. As the vast majority of sediment pollution comes from agriculture-related activities, the plans must be amended to include reasonable assurance that agricultural reductions can be achieved.

• Target conservation funding for maximum impact

  Minnesotans expect our taxpayer resources to be used wisely. The MPCA should commit to target limited resources, including Legacy Amendment money, to the projects with the best ‘pollution-reduction-per-dollar’ value for taxpayers.

• Set timelines and milestones for achievement

  The TMDLs lacks specific timelines and milestones. The MPCA should amend them to include aggressive but achievable benchmarks and annually measure progress toward these goals.

You can help!

Take action to help the Mississippi River. Visit MNAction.org to send your message to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

For more information::

Learn more about the South Metro Mississippi Turbidity TMDL.

• The draft TMDL report is available for review from the MPCA.
• The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s website on the TMDL is a great place to start.
• For a quick but solid overview, download the MPCA’s four-page PDF Fact Sheet.
• The full cleanup plan is also available on the MPCA's site.

Additional FMR background materials:

• TMDL Plan Draft Finished (November, 2010)
• On the Drafting of the TMDL (July, 2010)
• Learn more about TMDLs and The CleanWater Act at FMR’s Clean Water Act 101
• Contact FMR’s Watershed Program Director Trevor Russell at 651-222-2193 x18 or via our contact form to learn more about FMR’s role in the south metro turbidity standard and how you can further be involved.