About the Rice Creek watershed
What is the Rice Creek Watershed?
The Rice Creek Watershed is the land area that drains into the tributaries and main stream of the Rice Creek before it reaches the Mississippi River in Fridley. The watershed drains over 200 square miles of land, including parts of Anoka, Ramsey, Washington and Hennepin Counties.
What is the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) Board?
Rather than have each community in the Watershed set its own watershed planning strategy, the Rice Creek Watershed District Board was created to design watershed management rules that govern the whole watershed.
The five-member Board has the final say in Watershed policy. A nine-member Citizen Advisory Committee supports the RCWD Board.
What are the new Watershed Rules all about?
The RCWD Board has rules that govern a broad range of development- and conservation-related water management issues, including wetland and floodplain protection, stormwater runoff rules and erosion prevention guidelines. These rules are critical to ensuring that water quality is protected across the watershed.
The current Draft Rules are a great start. But there are three key areas where these rules need improvement. A coalition of recreation, habitat and environmental groups (including Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota Waters, lakes associations within the watershed, and others) have joined forces with local residents to ask for more protective rules in three areas:
How were these new rules approved?
On June 13, 2007, the RCWD Board proposed new rules governing watershed management in the Rice Creek Watershed District. A public hearing was held on July 11 to hear public comments on the proposed rules. The public comment period closed on August 1st, 2007. After several months of discussion, (in which FMR participated extensively) the RCWD board approved revised RCWD rules on February 13, 2008.