It's not enough, apparently, that much of the groundwater in Southwestern Minnesota is so naturally awful that the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System has to be built.
Officials in Nobles County fear a manure spill from cow dung stockpiled too close to a small private gravel pit may threaten area wells drawing from the local aquifer, as well as nearby creeks that are home to the federally-protected Topeka Shiner, the only endangered fish living in Minnesota.
Those who argue against the need to regulate anything anywhere might want to consider what would happen were no regulations in place for manure management.
Worthington Globe ag reporter Julie Buntjer writes in County investigates manure spill:
A large stockpile of cattle manure, coupled with recent rains, has led to a significant manure spill in Nobles County’s Little Rock Township.. . .The manure, which had come from a large, rural Rushmore cattle feedlot, was being stockpiled at the edge of a farm field in the northwest quarter of Section 25, Little Rock Township. Several yards to the south of the stockpile is a privately-owned gravel pit filled with water.
County ordinance states manure stockpiles be at least 300 feet from a road, buildings or waters. This stockpile was in violation in both proximity to the township road and the water body. . . .
There are two main concerns about the manure spill, the first being that it occurred in an area of Little Rock Township that has a shallow aquifer.
Craig Schafer, state program administrator-principal with the MPCA’s Emergency Response Program in Marshall, who was notified immediately of the spill, said it has the potential to impact groundwater.
“Just because of the geology there, we know there is the potential to impact the aquifer,” Schafer said. “The water table in that area is fairly shallow. We take those groundwater incidents very seriously.”
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Area Hydrologist Tom Kresko, who was briefed on the spill late Wednesday, said he planned to look into the potential impact to the aquifer today and determine whether there are any wells affected by the spill.
The second concern, according to Kusz, is the proximity between the spill area and the Topeka Shiner habitat. The federally-protected minnow is known to be in streams a mile and a half away. . . .
While it’s too early in the investigation for Kusz to say whether people will be prosecuted for the manure spill, she said county ordinance states a misdemeanor can be charged for every day manure leaks into the water body. . . .
Read the whole article. Minnesota is the only place in its range where the Topeka Shiner is doing well.
For now.
Photos: Manure spill in Nobles County, via Brian Korthals/Daily Globe (above); Topeka Shiners, photo by Konrad P. Schmidt, via Fishes of Minnesota (below).
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