Red River’s red flags: sediment threatens fish

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This article was published 27/02/2019 (2646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Red River is not the greatest home for fish and more can be done to make it better, Minnesota’s first comprehensive study of river water quality and fish and insect communities says.

The study, produced by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, says the Red River, which forms the border between that U.S. state and North Dakota, has places where there is so much sediment in the water, it makes it hard for fish “to find food, detect predators and reproduce in cloudy water.”

As well, the study found fish can’t go into some areas because of high bacteria counts, and levels of both phosphorus and nitrogen are increasing.

“Generally speaking, fish and aquatic insect communities are doing reasonably well, but decline as you go downstream,” the study says. “The high nutrient levels contribute to the severe algae downstream in Lake Winnipeg on the Canadian side of the basin.”

Jim Ziegler, the agency’s Detroit Lakes regional manager, said Tuesday the main problem is the Red River experiences a huge flow of water in the spring and during rainstorms, but the flow goes to a trickle or not at all during other times of the year.

“The water gets to the river very fast,” Ziegler said. “We have high flows, which raises the amount of sediment to the river and all the way north to Lake Winnipeg. But then you get low flows between the rain events and that causes problems with fish.”

Ziegler said the state has created places to store excess water so it can release it after flood and rain events, but it needs even more of them.

“It’s part of what can be done,” he said. “This is one of the most productive farming areas in the world, and we want our farmers to remain productive… our challenge isn’t to reduce drainage, but to have drainage, productive farming and water flow.”

The study looked at the river from Breckenridge, Minn., where the Bois de Sioux River joins the Otter Tail River to create the Red, north to the Manitoba border.

Other recommendations include: improving fertilizer and manure management, boosting soil health to help the ground absorb water during heavy rainstorms, investment in waste-water treatment so communities in the basin the Red River drains into can reduce the amount of phosphorus put into the river and flood-mitigation projects to prevent runoff that flushes pollutants from the land and into the river.

Nicole Armstrong, Manitoba Sustainable Development’s director of water science and watershed management, said she’s pleased the report mentions how problems in the Red River lead to problems in Lake Winnipeg.

“We recognize 50 per cent of the nutrient-loading to Lake Winnipeg comes from upstream,” Armstrong said.

“They recognize the impact of their actions and its effect on us… We share many of the same concerns on the Manitoba side. It really supports us working quite collaboratively with Minnesota.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced it is draining water out of its reservoirs into the Red River in advance of this spring’s snowmelt.

In a statement, the agency said it is in the process of lowering the water level at several places, including Lake Ashtabula, near Valley City, N.D., by 1.5 metres; the level in the Homme Dam, near Park River, N.D., by almost four metres; and Orwell Lake, near Fergus Falls, Minn., by about 2.7 metres. The Corps warns the water release could “degrade” river ice downstream of the reservoirs, thus people should beware in those areas.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca