Sara Heger, U of MN’s Onsite Sewage Treatment Program set the stage at a recent MN COLA meeting to talk about the connection between septic systems and water quality. She discussed Minnesota’s rules, as well as how a properly operated septic system functions, and what and how things can go wrong. She is the go-to person for all things septic!
Sara’s presentation can be seen HERE.
VRBOs and similar rental situations are raising some concerns among lake residents and one county has set rules and processes for managing rental properties to the benefit of all shoreland owners and users. Chris LeClair, Director of Otter Tail County’s Land and Resource department explained the new rules and led an excellent discussion of Otter Tail County’s Vacation Home Rental Ordinance. The presentation can be seen HERE.
Hold the date! The next MN COLA Member Meeting will be held via Zoom on December 10th @ 9:00-11:00am ct.
We have three important topics on the docket:
Register anytime before the meeting. The Zoom link for the meeting itself will be provided following registration. You will also receive an email from Zoom with the meeting link and more details.
Our meeting will start with Chris LeClair, the Director of Otter Tail County’s Land and Resource department. Otter Tail County is a leader in establishing an ordinance regarding vacation home rentals. The county’s ordinance went into effect on July 1 of this year.
Vacation home rentals can impact public health, safety, quality of life, as well as water and environmental quality. Many of your lakes, towns and counties are wrestling with vacation home rentals and their impacts, so looking into Otter Tail County’s new ordinance will make us all smarter.
Our meeting is being held during the EPA’s SepticSmart Week 2024 (purely coincidence), and since many our lake and river properties use septic systems or holding tanks, we thought that would be a great tie in to our collective interest in water quality. And it also ties into our meeting’s first speaker, as septic system are one of the vacation home rental concerns.
We are very fortunate to have Sara Heger, from the U of MN’s Onsite Sewage Treatment Program setting the stage at our MN COLA meeting to talk about the connection of septic system and water quality. Sara is also leading the webinar on “Being Septic Smart” at 7 pm CT on the same day as our meeting. She is the go-to person for all things septic! You’ll hear Sara at our meeting and you’ll probably want to register for that webinar
Last, but certainly not least, Jeff Forester of MN Lakes and Rivers Advocates will brief us on November’s statewide elections, where you may want to get involved, what the elections that might mean for the 2025 Legislative session, and what MLR is thinking about their Legislative priorities for 2025.
So, what’s up ahead? Wow, the DNR is doing an AIS roadside check of watercraft!
At the end of June on a Friday afternoon, the Minnesota DNR conducted a roadside inspection of watercraft on Highway 55 in Wright County, just east of Annandale. This part of Wright County, known as “Heart of the Lakes,” boasts highly recreated lakes within an hour of the metro. Also, it is home to three lakes with populations of starry stonewort, an invasive species.
The roadside check was on June 28th from 3:00 to 6:30pm. Major Scott Staples, Enforcement Division, MN DNR reports that 16 watercrafts were inspected with one violation noted. A citation was issued for transporting aquatic plants.
“This is just a small sample of what we have been doing statewide,” Major Staples shares. “We have been doing check stations for about 10 years and statewide compliance has been about 90%”.
Thanks to the DNR for this visible and expanded component of the Watercraft Inspection Program.
This spring has brought a variety of state actions to address the personal safety and ecological impacts of enhanced wake watersports.
Vermont is now implementing the toughest restrictions in the US. Maine has passed a bill calling for a 300’ distance from shore and a new study. Michigan introduced legislation but the uproar was enough to stall it out for now. Wisconsin passed legislation calling for a study.
And MN COLA is continuing to follow the path we agreed to with our lobbyists with MN Lakes and Rivers Advocates to first get science completed, then build a strong base with the watercraft operator’s license and mandatory education including best practices for enhanced wake watersports.
There’s more to each story, so read on.
Vermont’s new rule for managing wake boats on inland lakes and ponds went into effect on April 15, 2024. The new rule includes three important changes described below:
• The water depth is at least 20 feet.
• The wake boat’s distance from shore is at least 500 feet; and
• The wake sport zone (determined by 1 and 2 above) is more than 50 acres.
Despite hurdles that rendered legislation dead in 2023, a new law was signed by the Governor on April 9, 2024, with provisions including:
House Bill 5532 was introduced on February 29, 2024, specifying thata person shall not operate a vessel in wake sport mode on waters of this state where the water depth is less than 20 feet. A person operating a vessel in wake sport mode shall maintain a distance of not less than 500 feet from the shoreline or a dock, a raft, a buoyed or occupied bathing area, or a vessel moored or at anchor.
The negative response to the bill introduced was anticipated, but the sheer volume of emails against responsible regulation was staggering. Unfortunately for political election reasons, this bill might not get a committee hearing until after the November General Election.
Senate Bill 1016 with prohibitions for lakes smaller than 1,500 acres and minimum distances of 700’ from shore and 20’ depth of water is off the table because the public pushback was very powerful.
In a compromise, Assembly Bill 1171 requires the University of Wisconsin System to submit a plan for conducting a wakeboat study and request funding for conducting the wakeboat study in the 2025-27 fiscal biennium. Even the bill for the study didn’t make it out of committee in time, so it is dead.
Wisconsin can do local ordinances and a few local jurisdictions that have started creating limits for wake boats.
Cook County received approval from the MN DNR on their proposed wake surfing ordinance for Caribou Lake near Lutsen. This is a first surface water use ordinance on wake surfing and enhanced wakes in Minnesota. Specifically:
WAKE SURFING: Wake surfing, defined as the untethered use of a surfboard behind a watercraft, is prohibited on Caribou Lake in any area that meets one or more of the following criteria:
WAKE ENHANCEMENT: No person may operate a boat on Caribou Lake in an artificially bow-high manner, in order to increase or enhance the boat’s wake. Such prohibited operation shall include wake enhancement by use of ballast, mechanical hydrofoils, uneven loading or operation at transition speed. Transition speed means the speed at which the boat is operating at greater than slow-no-wake speed, but not fast enough so that the boat is on plane. It shall not be a violation of this ordinance to operate a boat through the ordinary transition from no wake to up on plane and from on plane to no wake.
MN Lakes and Rivers Advocates (MLR) published an overview of their strategy and approach to the wakes issue. Nothing changed from their previous direction.
MN COLA embraced the MLR direction early on, and we are committed to the approach. We worked hard to get the research funded. We worked hard to get the Watercraft Operator’s License bill passed. We embraced the Phase 1 report from the St. Anthony Falls Lab when it was published, and we look forward to the Phase 2 report addressing the depth of water concerns. With the Phase 2 results, we will be able to push to include both distance from shore and depth of water in the best practices section of the mandatory education component of the Operator’s License.
There are actions happening in other states, but these are some of the most interesting. And as expected, the watersports industry is pushing back hard on any proposed regulation, so each state action is quite a slog.
What do Kathryn Hoffman (left), Dr. John Rogers (right), Jeff Forester (top), and Hilarie Sorenson (bottom) all have in common?
They are all speaking about water at the MN COLA Annual Meeting on June 18 from 9 am – 11 am CT. The meeting is guaranteed to be interesting and informative, and we hope you will attend.
Register here for the Zoom meeting.
Meeting topics and speakers:
As always, everyone welcome to attend, so feel free to forward this meeting information.
MN COLA strongly believes in the need for keeping and reclaiming natural shorelines. This is especially important with the trend of turning part-time cabins into full-time homes. We have many resources on our website to make that case, but it is up to us, as shore owners to understand the impacts of making changes at the shoreline and to retain and/or reclaim the elements that favorably affect water quality.
With the permission of Michigan Lakes and Streams Association, we are pleased to provide a link to a terrific article that highlights the important connection between forests and lakes for strong water quality, shoreline stabilization, resistance to AIS, and a strong fishery.
The science supports keeping the forest and lakes connected!
Kirsti Marohn of MPR News, reported on new research that indicates reduced water clarity of lakes in mid-summer, linked to increased rainfall caused by climate change, is affecting the survival of common loons in northern Wisconsin. This is relevant research for Minnesota as well.
Here is the link to the new research.
We talk a lot about reclaiming natural shorelines, but you may not have a perspective on the permissions that you will need before you do the work.
This “Regulation Guide” (pictured above) was developed by Blue Thumb and it provides that perspective on approvals you need based on what you plan to do. Blue Thumb’s shoreline stabilization webpage has tabs with Planning, Design, Installation, and Maintenance considerations.
Blue Thumb is an educational program of Metro Blooms, a Minneapolis-based non-profit.
