Working to protect the Mississippi River and its watershed in the Twin Cities area

Framework for clean water presented to legislature

by Trevor Russell on January 19, 2011

The Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework, commissioned by the 2010 Minnesota Legislature, is a first-of-its-kind plan to protect Minnesota's lakes, rivers and groundwater for the 21st century and beyond.

Presented in draft form to the Minnesota Legislature January 5th, the framework addresses a range of water-related issues — drinking water quality, storm water management, agricultural and industrial water use, surface and groundwater interactions, ecological needs, invasive species and Minnesota's water infrastructure system — all within the context of changing climate, demographics, and land use and development.

The framework emphasizes several key, high-priority legislative recommendations, including:

Investing in research to understand Minnesota’s surface and ground-water sustainability and long-term supplies,
Reorganizing local water management agencies to combine local entities into single, watershed-based water and soil management organizations, thus integrating water and land sustainability planning at the watershed level,
Developing a statewide plan to decrease nutrient runoff from agricultural sources, including farmer-led, performance-based Agricultural Management Areas organized along the state's 81 watershed that would provide technical resources and incentives for achieving clean water goals,
Advancing efforts to develop "green chemistry” to prevent future water contamination, and
Restructuring municipal water pricing to more accurately reflect the ecological as well as infrastructure-related costs of water use.

Friends of the Mississippi River thanks the hundreds of stakeholders and visionary leaders who worked together to develop this groundbreaking roadmap to a sustainable water future in our state. We look forward to keeping our e-newsletter and website readers up-to-date on its progress.