Blue Earth County joins Le Sueur Watershed coalition

Tim Krohn, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
Updated ·2 min read

Sep. 26—Blue Earth County is joining other counties in the Le Sueur River watershed to take a joint approach to improving one of the most sediment-laden river systems in Minnesota.

The County Board Tuesday joined the One Watershed, One Plan group, which includes the counties and Soil and Water boards in Waseca, Faribault, Blue Earth and Freeborn counties.

Blue Earth County Commissioner Kevin Paap, who served on the policy committee that hammered out the joint powers agreement between the counties, said they met 25 times since early 2021.

"There's been a lot of blood, sweat and maybe even tears sometimes on this process. It was democracy at work. There was a lot of discussion," he said.

"This is a good plan and I look forward to actually doing something rather than just talking about it."

Scott Salsbury, county land use planner, told the board there are a number of priority areas to focus on in the county, including Lura and Madison lakes, as well as areas in the St. Clair area and the Lower Cobb River.

"Groundwater protection is another key area in the plan," he said.

Each of the four counties in the joint powers group will vote on bylaws, budgets and structure of the group. Waseca County has been designated as the plan coordinator and fiscal agent.

The county earlier joined the Blue Earth watershed One Watershed, One Plan group along with several other counties and the city of Fairmont. The Blue Earth watershed stretches all the way into Iowa.

The Le Sueur River flows 111 miles from Freeborn County through parts of Waseca, Faribault and Blue Earth counties. Its major tributaries are the Cobb and Maple rivers. The watershed is the land area that is drained by the rivers and it encompasses 711,838 acres including Eagle Lake, Janesville, Mapleton, New Richland, Minnesota Lake, Wells and portions of Mankato and Waseca.

The watershed is a major source of sediment and nutrients to the Minnesota River and its rivers, streams and lakes suffer from many problems such as high sediment loads, low dissolved oxygen, excess nutrients, and heavy, erosive flows.