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A host of Wisconsin and Minnesota officials signed onto an agreement late last week in a ceremony in Wisconsin, that sets a phosphorus reduction goal for the St. Croix River Basin. Phosphorus, or nutrient, reduction of 20 percent is the two-state goal to be accomplished over the coming 12 to 15 years.

Chisago County is home to six sub-watersheds that drain into the St. Croix River, so Chisago County is a major player in any effort to affect St. Croix River water quality. (See map).

County water plan coordinator Jerry Spetzman attended the agreement-signing as part of a conference he helped organize.

Spetzman said, “We can do nothing (about the growing pollution of the river), and see the phosphorus levels continue to spike, or we can make things better.” The county water plan team has chosen the second option. “Collectively we will continue to work on areas we are responsible for,” Spetzman continued. “When we have the water plan adopted then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of how to achieve the goals.”

As residents of an area that contributes much water into the riverway, Chisago County’s water plan advisory team members are crafting a “Local Water Management plan” that’s nearly ready to present to the County Board and the public in draft form. Spetzman said the plan could be on a County Board agenda for preliminary discussion by sometime this month. Then state agencies review the plan and public hearings are held.

Hand-in-hand with the plan development there are other water quality programs that Spetzman also helps coordinate.

A network of stream monitoring volunteers are checking for phosphorus content at their stream checkpoints, as well as clarity and turbidity of their streams. The county is also participating in a nutrient loading survey of the Sunrise River near North Branch, which will help lay the data base for potential sources of nutrient loading. There is an on-going review of septage land spreading sites and the county is looking into how best to address individual septic system maintenance for the thousands of systems in the county.

Spetzman said additional creeks or flowages in Chisago County are being added to the “impaired waters list” put out by the state Pollution Control Agency, and that makes them eligible for total nutrient load studies. But, the extent of the study areas all depends on public funding and there are no certainties as to what the legislature will appropriate to this effort.

According to the latest report from the St. Croix River Basin Water Resources Planning Team the St. Croix Valley was home to about 150,000 from 1920 to 1950.

By the year 2000 there were 400,000. More than 500,000 residents are predicted by 2020.

Among the factors the water plan and the implementation of reduction efforts will cover include: wastewater treatment plant discharge, animal feeding operations, construction sites and other intensive land uses and natural sources of nutrient loading.

Meanwhile, Spetzman said the public needs to continue to be aware of their own activities that eventually affect the riverway, such as curtailing fertilizer use, best management practices on ag operations, not cutting trees and vegetation that act as filters along water bodies, avoiding wetland encroachment (filling, dumping) and being diligent about regular septic system care.

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