Advertisement
The agency submits an updated list of impaired waters every two years to the Environmental Protection Agency as required by the Clean Water Act. The identified waters continuously exceed acceptable pollutant levels for phosphorus, acetachlor and fecal coliform bacteria.
Only a fraction of Minnesota’s lakes and streams have been assessed, said MPCA public spokesperson Nancy Miller, but the list grows with every new waterway surveyed.
The MPCA found acetochlor, a pesticide used on corn crops, in the middle fork of the Whitewater River. This is the first year the MPCA listed acetochlor as a pollutant.
PCBs were discovered in fish from the Mississippi River near the Minnesota and Iowa border.
The Root River, Money Creek, Rush Creek, Rollingstone Creek and Stockton Valley Creek have problems with sedimentation that muddies water clarity and affects fish and plants.
Statewide, the agency added 287 lakes and waters to the list, bringing the total to 1,469.
Regulators will have to make a plan to restore each of 287 newly-listed waters within 15 years. Assessments called total daily maximum load, or TDMLs, will start as early as this year or as late as 2019.
The MPCA will hold eight public information hearings on the proposed list before Nov. 7.
Maps and information can be found at www.pca.state.mn.us.
