Root River watershed included in $320 million federal river project
By Associated Press and Lee Newspapers

Courtesy Houston County News - LaCrescent, Minn.

The Root River watershed in Houston and Fillmore counties is among 41 watersheds in 12 states selected for a U.S. Department of Agriculture project to stop agricultural runoff into the Mississippi River.

The department said it has $320 million for farmers who want to slow runoff. The voluntary four-year project will be funded by $80 million each year.

Among the goals of the program are controlling soil erosion, improving soil quality and providing wild-life habitat while improving water quality, and managing runoff and rain water.

Emphasis will be on a conservation systems approach to managing nitrogen and phosphorous within fields to minimize runoff.

The agency is targeting watersheds in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In all, those areas make up more 42 million acres of land, or about 5 percent of the Mississippi River basin’s land area.

Agricultural runoff leads to high nutrient and sediment levels in the river. The river’s high nutrient load is thought to create an area of dangerously low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico every summer known as "the dead zone."

Article Published: 12-02-2009