2015 Cyr Creek, Black River, and Red Lake River Sub-Watersheds Water Quality Improvement Projects

Red Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) has targeted water quality improvement projects to twelve sites in the Black River, Cyr Creek, and Red Lake River Sub-Watersheds of the Red Lake River Watershed. Data analysis obtained from a variety of models identified which sub-watersheds were contributing to impairments, highlighted which fields in those sub-watersheds were contributing the most sediment, and even showed specific locations in the field which were most vulnerable to erosion. Red Lake County SWCD also conducted an Erosion Site Inventory in 2014, which verified the information from the tools/models, and found landowners in these priority areas that were eager to fix the erosion problems on their fields. Water Quality Improvement Projects, which include but are not limited to, grade stabilization structures, grassed waterways, and water & sediment basins, will be the Best Management Practices implemented to correct the erosion that is occurring at these site locations. The twelve proposed installed practices result in the following soil loss reductions numbers: Sediment (TSS) will be 594.30 tons per year, Soil (estimated savings) will be 2,237 tons per year and Phosphorus (est. reduction) will be 693.44 pounds per year.