NSS Weekly: The Land of 10,000 Lakes in an Era of Drought and Erosion

Transcript

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INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a weekly newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's community radio stations.

VICTOR PALOMINO: This week, we explore how drainage-caused erosion and pollution are affecting some communities across Minnesota. Then, a conversation about how the state's geological history has shaped today's weather challenges. Plus, how a changing climate is making these challenges even more urgent. And, are we in a drought? I'm Victor Palomino.

BRITT AAMODT: And I'm Britt Aamodt.

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BRITT AAMODT: But first, North Star Stories reporter Xan Holston with some of the news that made the headlines around the state.

XAN HOLSTON: The federal government says it has taken over operations of a tribal child welfare program in northern Minnesota just days after federal agents searched its building. The Bureau of Indian Affairs says it has reassumed the immediate program operations, saying federal staff is now at the new Red Lake Nation Family and Children's Services building to keep essential services running. The federal agency did not explain why it's taking over service in its recent statement posted to its website. AMPERS member station KAXE's Larissa Donovan reports.

LARISSA DONOVAN: FBI agent Matt Vogel confirmed the action at Ombimindwaa but did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation. He says no arrests were made as a result of the search warrant. The Red Lake Tribal Council issued a statement that it would cooperate with federal partners while upholding Red Lake's unique sovereignty. Ombimindwaa translates to “uplifting our relatives.“ The new $15.5 million building was unveiled in 2023 after more than $5 million was secured from the state during the 2020 legislative session. As part of the BIA's Tiwahe initiative, Red Lake has received direct funding from state and federal sources to oversee family and child programming since 2021. Larissa Donovan, KAXE News.

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XAN HOLSTON: The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on behalf of the city of Oak Grove after hearing arguments from the North Metro City and Anoka County. The justices ruled that Oak Grove can choose to use paper voter rosters for its precincts in November, even though Anoka County is using electronic check-in lists. Anoka County and the Secretary of State wanted the Supreme Court to force Oak Grove to use the same electronic rosters, saying counties control the format when state and federal races are on the ballot. But Chief Justice Natalie Hudson questioned that call for county-wide uniformity.

CHIEF JUSTICE NATALIE HUDSON: One could make the argument that uniformity is better but that doesn't seem to be the choice that the legislature made.

XAN HOLSTON: The Supreme Court ruled local election officials can choose the type of check-in rosters for their precincts and will release the full opinion in the coming weeks.

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In northern Minnesota, an invasive algae that can form dense mats has turned up in another lake, along with new zebra mussel discoveries. The Department of Natural Resources confirmed the invasive species in two lakes within the Leech Lake Reservation. Band resource staff found starry stonewort algae in Six Mile Lake. Zebra mussels were also confirmed there. Little Wolf Lake near Cass Lake has zebra mussels only. The DNR reminds boaters to clean and drain equipment after exiting the water and before transport.

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Two Greater Minnesota high schools say they were forced to cancel varsity sports teams this season because of low enrollment. Hinckley-Finlayson in the East Central region says it's canceling the football season because there aren't enough varsity players to safely play the schedule. And in southern Minnesota, Fairview High has canceled varsity boys' hockey this winter and hopes to have enough players for a junior varsity team.

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And finally, after extreme heat delayed it earlier this summer, Minnesota's Disability Pride Festival returns to the state capital. The free event brings disabled Minnesotans and allies together for connection, performances, and a resource fair. It's also Disability Voting Rights Week. Organizers say pride and advocacy go hand in hand. For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

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BRITT AAMODT: In the Minnesota River Valley, tension is growing over drainage-caused erosion and pollution concerns, prompting a lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and partners. Reporter Maija Hecht has the story.

BECKY WASKOSKY: When we moved in, we had oak trees in the backyard behind our house. We had split rail fence. There was, you know, a nice distance between our house and the river, and then over the years with the different floods, we've seen all of that disappear.

MAIJA HECHT: The Minnesota River Valley has a drainage problem. Research shows that rapid erosion is being caused by increased water flow from climate change and agricultural drainage systems that serve the region's corn and soy farms, which make up about 97 percent of the watershed. Agricultural drainage has nearly doubled the flow of water into corridors like the Minnesota River, according to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, one of multiple organizations who co-signed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, or MPCA, earlier this year, requesting an agricultural drainage permit program to protect Minnesota waters from pollution. While policymakers handle the issue in courtrooms, local homeowners like Becky and Don Waskosky fear that the next flood could be the one that takes their home.

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BECKY WASKOSKY: Like you said, we slept in the living room, and you could just hear the thuds of big chunks falling into the river, and it's a sound you just don't want to hear, and the pit in your stomach of hearing that, and it was so scary.

MAIJA HECHT: This was the third so-called 100-year flood in 10 years. When the Waskosky's bought their home, the Minnesota River was 100 feet from their doorstep. Over the past 20 years, three quarters of the bank has washed away.

BECKY WASKOSKY: We have to try to find answers to try to save our house. We represent so many people that are in the same situation as us.

MAIJA HECHT: In the Minnesota River Valley, water drains through a system of pipes called drain tile, an underground grid that bypasses historic wetlands that once slowed water down and acted as a filter for small particles and fertilizer.

LEIGH CURRY: We're concerned about the nutrient pollution, which of course can be a human health issue as well as aquatic health, causes algae blooms all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

MAIJA HECHT: Leigh Curry oversees litigation efforts for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Curry supported the lawsuit, arguing that the MPCA should require permits for public drainage systems. But the legal language gets tricky.

LEIGH CURRY: The simple definition is that a drainage system is designed to dispose of waste from farm fields, from agricultural fields, and it tends to pollute the water of the state. So it is a disposal system.

MAIJA HECHT: The catch is that the MPCA does not consider agricultural drainage a disposal system, and therefore argues that they do not have the authority to regulate them as sources of pollution. As of late last month, Ramsey County Court agrees. The MPCA declined North Star Story's interview invitation, but said they continue to utilize the state nutrient reduction strategy to protect Minnesota waters, Lake Winnipeg, Lake Superior, and the Gulf. The agency said that work is done through efforts like implementing the wastewater nitrogen reduction strategy, promoting continuous living cover, and other agricultural best management practices like data collection and monitoring, and updating feedlot rules and permits, for example. While regulators and community members disagree on the best method to mitigate pollution, there is growing consensus at the local level that something needs to change. Multi-generational farmer Pat Duncanson has taken matters into his own hands.

PAT DUNCANSON: So, about I'll say 15 or so years ago, a neighbor contacted me and said, “Hey, there's a drainage system going through my farm and your farm, and we should try to improve it so that we get better crop productivity.“

MAIJA HECHT: Duncanson serves on the same local watershed network as the Waskowskys, the couple who we heard from earlier in this story about erosion threatening their home.

PAT DUNCANSON: And at about the same time, some public agencies suggested that we should try to figure out a way that we could help build shock absorbers back into the system for the peak flows, which has a direct impact on water quality.

MAIJA HECHT: The project took years, and funding from a one-time private grant, but was ultimately successful in slowing drainage waters. Despite his individual effort, Duncanson is hesitant to involve a formal permitting process in agricultural drainage management.

PAT DUNCANSON: It seems like when we have to do that with other aspects of our farming operation, as the farm operator, we end up putting so much effort and energy into complying with the paperwork process, and almost all of that energy has nothing to do with solving the problem.

MAIJA HECHT: Chief Impact Officer at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Leigh Curry, reiterated that top-down regulation would place compliance responsibility on local authorities rather than farmers themselves.

LEIGH CURRY: So it would not be an individual farmer, for example, who would have to get a permit. It would be the drainage authority that's trying to create this public infrastructure that multiple farmers use in order to get the water off of their fields and into the receiving waters.

MAIJA HECHT: Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and partner organizations plan to appeal the court's decision.

LEIGH CURRY: Yeah, there are solutions to this problem that both allow for draining farm fields and having cleaner water.

MAIJA HECHT: This is Maija Hecht for North Star Stories.

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BRITT AAMODT: After the break, how the state's geological history - and human activity - has led to erosion in the Minnesota River basin.

VICTOR PALOMINO: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's Community Radio Stations, with support from the State of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

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BRITT AAMODT: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Britt Aamodt.

VICTOR PALOMINO: And I'm Victor Palomino.

BRITT AAMODT: Minnesota's geography has been shifting over millennia, shaped by glaciers, water formations, erosion, and other factors. Today, the combination of natural processes and the impact of human activity is creating new fields of study and questions about the future of many of Minnesota's homes, infrastructure, and economy.

VICTOR PALOMINO: To learn more, we are joined now by Patrick Belmont, a hydrologist and geomorphologist at Utah State University in the Department of Water, Earth, and Environmental Sciences. He previously worked at the University of Minnesota, where he studied sediment, bluff erosion, and water-quality issues in the Minnesota River basin. Patrick, welcome to the program.

PATRICK BELMONT: Really glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

VICTOR PALOMINO: What is about Minnesota's landscape and geology that drives some of today's drainage and erosion problems?

PATRICK BELMONT: Yeah, you know this was something that really surprised me when I started working there 20 years ago. You know, it seems like a very flat landscape, and you wouldn't expect there to be a lot going on. But because of some of the history, some of the glacial history going back 13,000 years ago, it's actually an incredibly dynamic and active landscape. Some of the tributaries to the Minnesota River have been some of the fastest downcutting rivers in the world. They're downcutting kind of down into the earth at rates that you only see in places like Taiwan or in the Himalayas, places that are incredibly tectonically active. That's playing into this whole story of where is all this sediment coming from and what can we do about it.

VICTOR PALOMINO: This is natural. It happens as part of the terrain, as part of the geological history of the state. But today we have this erosion and draining issues. Is this just because of that, of that not the geography of the place, or is human activity and climate change also involved in this?

PATRICK BELMONT: That's where it gets even more interesting because it's really the combination of the two. Yes, this is one of the most rapidly kind of eroding river networks in the world naturally over the last 13,000 years, but when we look at how much sediment a river like the Le Sueur would naturally produce, it's about 50,000 tons per year, and you know today it's closer to 225 - 250,000 tons per year. So it's producing much more even than it would naturally under just natural conditions. You know, initially when I started working there, I thought, well, it's all a big corn and bean field. It's really intensive agriculture. This is a typical story we've seen elsewhere. It's just all the tillage and soil erosion, and that's a bit of it. But that's only about a quarter to a third of the total amount of sediment that's in a river today. Part of the other reason that it's eroding so much more is because of all the artificial tile drainage that farmers have put in, and so it's raining more, and they're draining the landscape much more aggressively, and so all of that means the flows in the river have gone way up. We've basically doubled the magnitude of the floods, so that means there's a lot more water flowing through the rivers. There's a lot more power in the rivers, and on top of this, already geologically sensitive landscape. That means you know you increase the power a little bit in the river, and it starts eroding a lot more. It's a disproportionate response. So it's a combination of these kind of natural changes that have been amplified by human activities.

VICTOR PALOMINO: The main story would say how homeowners and people in agriculture and conservation groups are in this kind of a legal battle with the state agencies. But from your perspective, what should be something that they can focus on to start finding rapid solutions or immediate solutions to this problem?

PATRICK BELMONT: We've seen a problem similar to this as we were developing urban areas. You start putting in impervious area, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, things like that, and the water runs off very quickly. And so, in America, we developed urban stormwater drainage laws where people have to get permits and they have to design things to mitigate that effect. And it works pretty well. It's not perfect. And you know, one thing that people have proposed is that we should have a similar type of drainage permitting system that says, okay, if you're going to put in artificial drainage in your field, we know that it has downstream and off-field impacts. It's your responsibility to mitigate those impacts. And to me, it's a very straightforward case, but it's something that we need to be having a more kind of open and honest conversation with as a as a community. Some of the work that we did showed that you don't have to take out the drain tile to fix this problem. And in fact, if we want to keep growing crops in southern Minnesota, taking out the drain tile is probably problematic. The yields will go way down. But what we found is, if you just take a tiny fraction of the landscape out of agricultural production and use it for water storage, then you can lower the floods a lot. So just using natural depressions in the landscape, you take out 4% of the landscape, and you get a 40% reduction in sediment loading. That's a big deal. And if you start building berms and things, you can probably get that down to 2% of the landscape that you're taking out of production to get a 40% reduction in sediment loading. It's a big deal. It's a very feasible solution. But yeah, Minnesota has kind of dragged their feet on it, even though we've known that that's kind of the answer for a long time.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Sometimes with these kind of situations, just what happened, you know, it's like we have these tendencies to wait until things get into an extreme situation to take action, and sometimes prevention is what it helps us. But one final question: There's been reports that the state is now entering a drought. There's some places where they have like moderate drought, and some places where they have already extreme drought. Is this going to affect the issue in any way?

PATRICK BELMONT: Well, I mean, it's all the more reason to want water storage in a landscape because you know, for these types of years, farmers could actually use that water storage in their fields as some drought mitigation. Now, if you're holding onto that water for a week or a couple of weeks, there are ways that they could potentially reuse that to irrigate. I mean, this has not been an area that we have typically irrigated in the past, but that could build in some drought resilience as well if it's done right, and so it's another reason for implementing the same solution. It kind of hearkens back to something that that you just touched on. You know, I think a pattern that we see in many of these environmental challenges is when the science asks something hard of us, we find all kinds of ways to try to put it off, delay it, get around it, and we're just seeing that's not working. It's not working with climate change. It's not working with these water quality issues. You know, we really have to be paying more attention to the very simple things that are right in front of our face that science is quantifying and maybe is over quantifying. I mean, we've scienced many of these problems to death. What we need is people coming together and really looking hard at what we need to be doing.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Patrick, thank you so much for your time and contributing to this report.

PATRICK BELMONT: No, thank you so much for covering this. Really appreciate it.

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VICTOR PALOMINO: Recently, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported that many parts of the state are experiencing abnormally dry conditions, with some areas in moderate to severe drought.

BRITT AAMODT: To learn more about these reports, we're joined by Luigi Romolo, Ph.D., a Minnesota State Climatologist in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. His climate office uses historical data to help understand why certain events occur in order to put them into a historical perspective. Thank you for joining us, Luigi.

LUIGI ROMOLO: Pleasure to be here. Thank you.

BRITT AAMODT: So, according to recent reports, nearly 80% of Minnesota is experiencing some level of dryness or drought. What does that mean in practical terms for Minnesota?

LUIGI ROMOLO: I know that in the Fargo-Moorhead area, there are reports of farmers that are having to cut their corn for silage, and we were hearing reports about that as well in Pipestone and Murray counties. If you're making money off summer tourism, you're probably concerned about the low lake levels, and we get calls all the time when we're in a really bad drought from folks who, you know, run summer resorts, and they're like, “What's going on with the weather? This is how we eat.“ I mean, this is how they make a living. So they're concerned about that. If you're a regular citizen here in the Metro, you're probably not as concerned about the drought. Things are starting to get a little bad around the metro area, but our greatest concern right now is in North Central Minnesota, where we have what's called a storage drought, and this is where you have a severe depletion of not only moisture in the soil, but lake levels are really low, stream flows really low, and groundwater storage is getting to be a bit of a concern. And the storage drought has really occurred from the result of repeated droughts back-to-back to back since 2020, and right now that area is anywhere from 12 to 16 inches short on precipitation over the last four years. In fact, in Cass County, over the last six and a half years, they're short almost a full year's worth of precipitation.

BRITT AAMODT: I think a lot of what we're seeing this summer, at least I've been reminded, just walking around where I live, of 2021. That was also a pretty bad year for drought, wasn't it?

LUIGI ROMOLO: It was. In fact, it was probably the worst drought since 1988. Although this particular drought doesn't look as bad on the drought map as it did in 2021. The fact that we've had these repeated droughts starting to take a toll on our hydrological system here in Minnesota.

BRITT AAMODT: When you say it's taking a toll on the hydrological system, what does that mean?

LUIGI ROMOLO: I'm talking basically about the hydrological cycle. So we get water input from precipitation. That water goes into the soil, gets used by vegetation. It gets stored in the soil so that it can deliver further precipitation to our lakes and streams. Any additional water that gets put into the soil that the soil can't retain gets pushed down into groundwater storage that we can then use in our wells. The fact that we've had so many repeated droughts since 2021, which really started back in the summer of 2020, we're starting to see that you know with each year we we're losing more water than we're gaining.

BRITT AAMODT: Are you tracking groundwater and what this means for groundwater and say, you know, our public water systems?

LUIGI ROMOLO: The DNR does have a network of wells that that they maintain and monitor. We're starting to see some pretty low levels in that area of storage drought in the in the north central part of the state, but and we've had a few well interferences here in Minnesota already from this drought, and so we're keeping an eye on things. It's certainly not as bad as it was in 2021, but if we don't get any rainfall soon, you know, drought just won't go away on its own. You need rainfall in order to do that.

BRITT AAMODT: Are there reports of wells running dry? Is that something that's happening?

LUIGI ROMOLO: If you have a well next to another well that's being tapped very often, what can happen is you get what's called a cone of depression, where the water table will dip below the depth of your well, and you can't draw water. And so we have a means for folks to call into the DNR and report those kinds of incidences, so that we can get it rectified.

BRITT AAMODT: It's good to know that there is a program out there. So, what is the Statewide Drought Plan then?

LUIGI ROMOLO: The Statewide Drought Plan, it's available online. It is a response matrix that, whereby, depending on the level or severity of the drought, the Minnesota DNR will place certain watersheds in one of many response phases. We have a watch phase, a warning phase, a restrictive phase, and an emergency phase. And under the watch phase, it's really just mostly like if a water basin is experiencing abnormally dry conditions or moderate drought, you know, we'll put out notices for water conservation and be on the lookout for future drought conditions. Under the warning phase, that's when a watershed has a significant amount of severe drought in it, and that's certainly the case for several watersheds right now in the state, and that's when we start to notify public water suppliers to restrict water use to a certain extent. And then, if the drought gets worse, those restrictions get a little stronger.

BRITT AAMODT: What are some commonsense water conservation rules that…that people living in Minnesota, can apply right now?

LUIGI ROMOLO: Water conservation needs to be a lifestyle change. We can't just be conserving water during drought. It's not going to work that way because it takes a long time, even after the drought is gone, for us to replenish our lakes and rivers, and especially our groundwater. So I would say keep a rain gauge in your backyard so you know how much you need to water your lawn. Lawns only need about an inch and a half of precipitation a week in order for them to stay green. During drought like this, I would just let your lawn go yellow. They rebound really quickly. There's no need to water our lawns. We water our lawns with drinking water. You know, we flush our toilets with drinking water. We take our showers in drinking water, and so take shorter showers. Don't water your lawn. Don't run the water while you're shaving or brushing your teeth. Just you know, common sense type of stuff.

BRITT AAMODT: Is there anything that you'd like to add that you feel it's important for our listeners to know?

LUIGI ROMOLO: One thing that people aren't aware about when it comes to drought, and it's unlike other disasters, is that you just never know when it's going to end. You get a flood, it lasts a few days, and then the water recedes, and you recover. Or a tornado moves through your community, destroys some infrastructure, you know, next day you start with the recovery. In the south, with hurricanes, they may impact you for two or three days, and then you recover. With a drought, you never know when it's going to end. While one drought kicks in, it could at any point turn into the worst drought you've ever seen. And so, it is important for people to practice good water conservation.

BRITT AAMODT: Well, thank you for all your perspective and insight and information, and for joining us on North Star Stories today, Luigi.

LUIGI ROMOLO: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.

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VICTOR PALOMINO: This is it for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org or listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can also get North Star Stories Daily on our website or check your favorite station's schedule.

BRITT AAMODT: Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's community radio stations with support from the state of Minnesota. Online at ampers.org.