How did we lose one of our rivers?

The last of a series of ten Town Hall Meetings "to accelerate the pace of progress towards clean water" will be held in Stillwater this evening. Since we're often posting about water issues here, you might expect us to be in attendance. The major watershed for the East Metro meeting is the Lower St. Croix, our home waters. We're not going. We're in a fit of pique. Here's why!

Sunrise River flowing into the St. Croix

Photo by J. Harrington

If you look at the information packets available online. our county, Chisago, is listed for each of the two Twin Cities metro meetings on 25 By 25, as are Wright, Isanti and Sherburne county. The information packet for those meetings, however, shows only the seven county metro area under the jurisdiction of the Metro Council. We actually live in the Sunrise River watershed, a tributary to the St. Croix. It enters the St. Croix near the northern end of Wild River State Park.

Sunrise River at Wild River State Park

Photo by J. Harrington

We firmly believe people need to be able to identify which watershed they're in, at all times! What happens on the land ends up in the water much of the time. Would a Minneapolitan visiting Itasca State Park realize that a can of oil they might have spilled near the river could, after flowing downstream, get picked up by the intake to the Minneapolis water system? We care about what we know about. We need to know more about our linkages to the watersheds and airsheds that provide us with clean water and clean air.

We're pleased that Governor Dayton is engaging Minnesotans to raise awareness of water issues. We've already offered our suggestions and posted them on line. But, from our perspective, the Dayton administration has violated one of Aldo Leopold's fundamental guides for conservation, to whit: "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." We're not sure whether the Sunrise River watershed is considered a cog or a wheel, but someone failed to keep it when the organized the Town Hall information. That leaves us wondering what else got left out. It also reinforces our belief that Minnesota must reorganize and simplify it's administrative boundaries to better align with bioregions, especially watersheds. As noted in Minnesota's Water Sustainability Framework:

RECOMMENDATION J.1.e : Create watershed-scale Watershed and Soil Conservation Authorities (WSCAs) throughout the state with the responsibility of implementing the goals of the Minnesota Water Sustainability Act.

                     New Water

By Sharon Chmielarz

All those years—almost a hundred—

the farm had hard water.

Hard orange. Buckets lined in orange.

Sink and tub and toilet, too,

once they got running water.

And now, in less than a lifetime,

just by changing the well’s location,

in the same yard, mind you,

the water’s soft, clear, delicious to drink.

All those years to shake your head over.

Look how sweet life has become;

you can see it in the couple who live here,

their calmness as they sit at their table,

the beauty as they offer you new water to drink.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.