Otter Tail joins river district

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Otter Tail County, the source of the Pomme de Terre River, is one of six counties that comprise the Pomme de Terre River Association of Minnesota. The purpose of the association is to improve water quality.

“The river continues to be impaired by high levels of fecal coliform bacterial and turbidity,” aquatic biologist Marilyn Bayerl told members of the Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners Tuesday afternoon.

To that end, a Joint Powers Board (JPB) consisting of a Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor and a county commissioner from each of the six counties within the watershed — including Otter Tail County — is in place.

“The JPB is committed to engaging local people to become informed and active in cleaning up the river,” Bayerl said. “With your help we can make the Pomme de Terre River a great resource for all to enjoy.”

Otter Tail County, where the river begins, used to have many dairy farms. Now, however, the land is mostly used for grains. This northern area of watershed consists of mostly lakes, wetlands, cattails, woods and meadows.

The river then flows into Grant County where the landscape begins to flatten out and more agriculture occurs along the edges of the river.

“We have some grant money available to fix some sewage treatment systems,” Bayerl told Otter Tail County Commissioners on Tuesday.

In 2000 the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) funded the Pomme de Terre River Watershed Project with $50,000 to compile all of the data that has been studied.

The grant was used, in part, to begin a Citizen Stream Monitoring Program through MPCA and local water plan managers. Grant money also was used to begin best management practices — used by farmers to reduce the amount of nutrients, fecal coliform and other pollutants that make their way into surface and ground water.

The Pomme de Terre River Association of Minnesota sponsored two bus tours of the watershed in the spring of 2001, sponsored several public input meetings and sent out newsletters to watershed residents. Strong interest existed and the Joint Powers Agreement was reinstated in 2002.

The watershed continues to widen as it enters Stevens County where prairie and agricultural landscapes dominate. Finally, the river flows into Big Stone and Swift counties and into the Minnesota River.

The majority (76.4 percent) of the watershed consists of agricultural and cultivated landscape. Although the river does not flow through Douglas County, it is considered in the watershed because Lake Christina drains into the Pomme de Terre.

Shaun McNally was recently hired as the Pomme de Terre River Watershed Project Coordinator. He is based at the Stevens Soil & Water Conservation District office in Morris.

McNally will serve Otter Tail, Big Stone, Douglas, Grant, Stevens and Swift counties from that location.