Preliminary reports do not show the cause of pollution in the main stem of the Clearwater River and Lake Louisa. Officials say there are no smoking guns, and more monitoring and community involvement will be needed to get it cleaned up. “The sources could be man-made, or they could be naturally caused,” said Rebecca Kluckhohn, a project engineer for the Clearwater River Watershed District. “There may not be enough tree cover along the banks and the stream temperature gets too high during the summer. It could be from ground water flowing in, or from failing septic systems. At this point what we know is there is a problem, but what is causing it is not clear.” Kluckhohn reported her findings to officials from area lake associations, soil and water, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and watershed managers at the CRWD’s meeting Wednesday, Feb. 18. “We need more monitoring to determine what is causing the pollutants,” Kluckhohn said. “Once we have a list of causes we can bring you a list of solutions.” Kluckhohn said she would like to see more community members who are potentially affected to be involved in the project. “We don’t want people to be shocked or surprised. We want to find viable solutions together. That way no one gets upset,” she said. The next step will be to perform more monitoring this summer. Once that data is tabulated, it is hoped some cleanup plans can begin to be implemented in 2005, Kluckhohn said. The main stem of the Clearwater River and Lake Louisa exceed state-allowed levels for water pollutants. They have been deemed impaired for several years and are in desperate need of cleanup. The CRWD has started a multi-phase project to clean Lake Louisa, located between South Haven and Kimball, and the Clearwater River west of Highway 15 toward Watkins. The main stem of the Clearwater River showed fecal coliform amounts that were 10 times the state-allowed level of 200 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. Also, at times during the summer, the river has had depleted oxygen levels that would endanger fish. Lake Louisa shows high levels for nutrients, especially phosphorus. The MPCA, under the Federal Pollution Control Agency’s Clean Water Act, identified the waterways as impaired and in need of help. Due to the great number of MPCA-identified impaired waters, the local waters were not scheduled for MPCA attention until 2005 or 2006. The watershed district decided to take action earlier.
