Policy Committee votes to send draft plan to state’s BWSR for approval.
PRESTON, Sept. 28, 2016, – Area elected leaders overseeing the Root River One Watershed, One Plan project voted Monday to send its draft water-management plan to a state agency for final approval.
Members of the Root River One Watershed, One Plan (1W1P) Policy Committee voted unanimously to submit the watershed-based planning document to the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources (BWSR) for final review.
BWSR’s board of directors likely will vote in December on the Root River 1W1P document. The plan then would go to each local government unit in the Root River 1W1P’s planning area to vote on whether to adopt. These include county boards; Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs); and one watershed district.
Implementation of the Root River 1W1P water-management plan could begin as early as January 2017.
Prior to voting Monday, Root River 1W1P Policy Committee members reviewed all comments made about the draft plan by various state agencies and citizens, including those who spoke at public hearings September 7-8 in Stewartville and Caledonia. Staff and consultant answers to all of the questions and comments posed about the draft plan now are available for public review on the Fillmore Soil & Water Conservation District’s website.
Root River 1W1P’s planning area covers more than 1.3 million acres in parts of six counties – Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Mower, Olmsted and Winona. This includes the Root River Watershed; Minnesota’s portion of the Upper Iowa River Watershed; and Houston County’s Mississippi-Reno Watershed.
One of five 1W1P pilot projects in Minnesota, Root River 1W1P has involved planning partners representing a broad range of stakeholders, including local governments, state agencies, community members and organizations. Fillmore SWCD has led the 1W1P process and hosted meetings in Preston. Winona SWCD has served as the fiscal agent for the planning process.
Root River 1W1P’s local government units include Dodge, Fillmore, Mower, Olmsted, Houston and Winona counties, along with their respective SWCDs, with Root River SWCD representing Houston County. Crooked Creek Watershed District in Houston County also is among them.
Under 1W1P, the goal is to create a plan based on watershed boundaries rather than smaller, political boundaries. This will ensure that the most significant threats to a watershed’s water resources are addressed with practices providing the greatest environmental benefits.
It intends to provide a framework for consistency and cooperation on a watershed basis, allowing local governments to work together to implement projects with the highest return on investment for improving issues related to water quality and water quantity. The plan will not add a new layer of government.
BWSR has led the statewide 1W1P program that aims to reduce the more than 200 water plans statewide to less than 100. Watershed-based plans have the potential to allow for streamlined funding and administration to maximize efficiency, minimize redundancy and prevent duplication of efforts both on the local and state levels.
The Root River 1W1P draft planning document – along with meeting minutes and other related materials – is available on the Fillmore SWCD website at: www.fillmoreswcd.org/rootRiverWatershed.html.
Leave a Reply