A pilot project in the Red River Valley could improve how Minnesota monitors water quality statewide.
Federal law requires states to assess water quality, and lakes and streams that don't meet water quality standards are added to a list of impaired waters.
For nearly 20 years, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has studied rivers the same way. Researchers would identify a small section and intensely monitor the water quality. If they discovered problems, they'd list that segment as impaired or not meeting water quality standards. Officials were then required to develop a plan to improve water quality.
Officials with the Buffalo River watershed in the southern Red River Valley wanted to try a new approach.
"MPCA has recognized the segment or reach approach could literally go on forever," Bruce Albright, Buffalo-Red River Watershed administrator said. "So we said, let's take the big-picture look. Let's get the study done and get out there and fix what we need to fix."
Albright said monitoring a segment in the middle of a river failed to take into account what might be happening upstream.
According to state officials, the Buffalo watershed and a similar pilot project on the Cannon River in southeastern Minnesota are the first attempts to assess water quality for an entire drainage basin.
The first thing that's needed is a lot of good data on water quality.
In the Buffalo-Red River Watershed, data is collected by state agencies, private contractors and high school students. Whiskey Creek is one of several streams that flow into the Buffalo River, which empties into the Red River.
East of Barnesville, the creek winds through farm fields and meanders among trees and tall grass before flowing through a culvert under a narrow gravel road.
Several local high school students wearing orange safety vests collect data using equipment provided by the state.
"It's really important that you follow protocols because otherwise the data is useless to the watershed district and the EPA," said retired science teacher Sheila Carson, who's supervising the students. "You might as well throw it out and not be here."
Students take water samples that are then sent to a lab for analysis. They drop a probe into the water to measure things like temperature and oxygen. They collect the data each week from early spring to late fall. Each year they also document the insects and invertebrates that live in the streams.
In addition to making sure they gather accurate data, Sheila Carlson thinks the students also help draw attention to water quality.
"People stop me every once in awhile and talk to me about what we're doing and what we see. So I think people are concerned," Carlson said. "There are individuals who have wanted to know how the water is when it passes through their land. They're concerned and I think that's a good sign."
These high school students are just one part of a massive data collection effort. Dozens of sites along rivers in this watershed will be monitored for two years. The DNR assesses the water flow and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture monitors for pesticides.
It will be three or four years before all of that data is evaluated and the state can determine how much of the Buffalo River watershed is impaired. According to Watershed Administrator Bruce Albright, that's when the real work starts; finding a way to fix the water quality problems.
Much of the pollution in rivers and streams here comes from farm fields. Albright knows water quality hasn't always been a popular issue here.
"I think back probably ten years ago when Clay County Soil and Water wanted to give out a river friendly farmer award and we couldn't find anybody to take it," Albright said.
Attitudes are changing, said Albright, but he believes the biggest challenge of this pilot project will be getting public support for solutions. He thinks the data should help convince farmers.
"The dirt that's going down those waterways to cause the impairment is the topsoil that their sons and daughters and granddaughters and future generations are going to need to produce the crops we raise here in the Red River basin," Albright said.
The Buffalo-Red River Watershed board is already thinking of innovative ways to encourage farmers to plant buffer strips along ditches and streams to slow runoff from farm fields.
The lessons learned here might help the entire state according to MPCA Regional Watershed unit supervisor Jim Zeigler.
Zeigler said having a picture of water quality in the entire watershed will make it easier to pinpoint what's causing water problems. He said it's like looking at a completed puzzle, rather than scattered pieces.
"You can make decisions about where the most effective places might be for solutions," Zeigler said. "You're much more likely to end up with implementation that is most effective and costs the least for the amount of good you can generate from your project."
All of the data gathered will not only determine the health of the rivers now, it will also provide a reference point that will make it easier to monitor the health of this river system for decades to come.