Minnesota's Nutrient Reduction Strategy: Practices, progress & solutions
Hello and welcome back to the Advancing Nitrogen Smart podcast series from University of Minnesota Extension. I am Jack Wilcox with communications here at Extension.
Jack Wilcox:Today, we're on the road again. We're at the eighteenth annual nutrient management conference in Mankato, Minnesota, and we're here to talk in-depth about the state of Minnesota's Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Jack Wilcox:Today, we are joined by a usual panelist who you will recognize, we have a special guest from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Why don't you each introduce yourselves?
Brad Carlson:Yeah. Oh, Brad Carlson, kinda one of our regulars here with Advancing Nitrogen Smart, the extension educator, work extensively with water quality and nitrogen and have been forever. I think most of our listeners kind of know who I am, but really pleased to have our guest with us today.
Matt Drewitz:I'm Matt Drewitz. I'm with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. I'm a research scientist, and I've been with the MPCA for the last three years, helping out with a team of people working on the Minnesota Nutri reduction strategy and updating it. And I've been working with state government for about the last twenty five years and worked with Minnesota Water and Soil Resources and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture in the past as well, and I've worked with Brad over the years many times.
Brad Carlson:Yeah. Well, actually, Matt, and I'm I I hate to even say this because this really ages me because you just said you've been working in state government for about twenty five years. I think I I think I met you first when you were still in high school, and I was the Rice County Extension agent. So so it goes like that that's how far that's how far that goes back.
Brad Carlson:Your dad was was one of the farmers that I dealt with a lot. He he had a small dairy by Faribault. Was it milking shorthorns?
Matt Drewitz:We had we had brown Swiss cow.
Brad Carlson:Brown Swiss. I I knew it wasn't Holsteins. I just couldn't remember what the breed was. So so yeah. And and so, yeah, you and I have have known each other for quite a long time.
Brad Carlson:So, Matt, I wanted to talk today about the nutrient reduction strategy, which the final version of the rewrite of the nutrient reduction strategy just came out this last week. It was in draft form for most of the last six months or so, and and there was a comment period and so forth. So this isn't like something brand new that sprung on people. It's it's kinda been out there for a while now. However, it is final, so the timing is is probably good to talk about.
Brad Carlson:And we've we've talked about it, the nutrient reduction strategy a lot in the past because it's one of the main drivers for why the nitrogen smart program was created. It the the state's nutrient reduction strategy, which was aimed at at the EPA's goals for reducing the hypoxic zone in The Gulf. It has been here since 2014. I think the original version was was came out. And and in addition to a lot of other nitrogen issues, that thing set a goal for 45% reduction in the total amount of nitrogen going leaving the state via the Mississippi River.
Brad Carlson:That's the goal for The Gulf is to have a 45% reduction. The idea being if each state achieves 45%, well, then it's a 45% reduction. You know? So we've kinda had that for a while, but there has been some changes with the the new the the update of the nutrient reduction strategy. Maybe you wanna clue us in on what those are, Matt.
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. I'll talk a little bit about some of the elements of the nutrient strategy that were updated, and and we had a really strong foundation in the original strategy that my coworker, Dave Wall, who who retired recently, long time, you know person.
Brad Carlson:Right, Dave has been heavily involved with our our program over the years. In fact, I think he's still on the online training. If you take the Nitrogen Smart online training, you'll see Dave.
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. So he was a big part of that. And and over the last ten years, we've we've, you know, brought a lot of new information. So we have a lot of new water quality monitoring and nutrient load data that we brought into the nutrient strategy so we could kinda look at what's happened over the last the last decade. So that was a big part of it. We had also for the water management framework for the state where we do watershed restoration protection strategies at a major watershed level and also the watershed planning through the One Watershed One Plan program.
Matt Drewitz:We've got really good coverage now of all those strategies at the local level statewide, and we didn't have that necessarily ten years ago. So we're talking about how those kind of more localized documents and strategies and plans, you know, relate to these basin level efforts.
Brad Carlson:And I know the the original nutrient reduction strategy was setting a goal of of I think we were looking for a 20% reduction in the first ten years. We didn't hit that. Where are we at?
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. At this at this time, just on the nitrogen side of things, we've had a, you know, a slight reduction. And so and for and for The Gulf, we're down. Our our goal is to have, you know, 45% reduction in nitrogen, and we're we're down to, like, 9%.
Matt Drewitz:We've we've got, like, 6% reduction. And we've had kind of a similar reduction in the Red River Valley in Northern Minnesota going towards Lake Winnipeg. But on the phosphorus side, we've seen a bigger reduction for to The Gulf where we've had significant reductions mostly coming from wastewater treatment plants and also some from agricultural practices. But in the Red River Valley, we've seen a little slight increase on the phosphorus side of things.
Brad Carlson:And complicating a lot of this is the increased precipitation. I mean, we've got just on average, the amount of water falling from the sky is is up a lot since 2014. I mean, it's been kinda going up annually. There's been sort of a trend line, and and that's that's causing a lot of the problem with trying to find improvements because we're looking at the total flux going down the river, right? And so that's a factor of not just the concentration, but the total amount of water get multiplied together to get your total nitrogen flux, you know, going down the river on a mass load basis.
Brad Carlson:So the extra flow has really caused a lot of problems with that.
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. So we've seen a good correlation, especially when you get all the way to The Gulf. We're trying to decrease the size of hypoxic zone down to something less than 2,000 square miles. But and on really dry years, almost like a drought year, you get close to that or below. But on the on across The United States when we've had, you know, large rainfalls and and and flood events, those types of things, then we'll see that hypoxic zone, and we'll double that size usually on those types of years.
Matt Drewitz:And, usually, it's after you have a series of dry years and you have a flush of nutrients that come down the river, and then we'll see a larger hypoxic zone, which impacts the fisheries and shrimping industry.
Brad Carlson:And right. And and and you mentioned phosphorus, and, of course, the the podcast here were were primarily concerned with nitrogen, but it's important to note that phosphorus is part of the nutrient reduction strategy. And you also mentioned the fact that a lot of the improvements to phosphorus were gained through improvements in wastewater treatment plants. New nutrient reduction strategy actually is setting some fairly aggressive goals for nitrogen emissions from those facilities also, right?
Matt Drewitz:Correct. Yeah. And we're looking at, you know, what are different ways to do denitrification and ways to be more efficient with with nitrogen. And, you know, as that takes time because, you know, wastewater treatment plants are are an upgrade. You know, every year, it's it's like a decadal type of thing.
Matt Drewitz:So we're looking at how we can do some efficiencies while they're doing upgrades, you know, at different times and working with the permittees on that.
Brad Carlson:Yeah. And and I know I was just here the last couple weeks. I was up doing some presentations up in Northwest Minnesota. We've seen some pretty significant changes in what we have for goals for the Red River now too.
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. The goals in the Red River Basin are the the loads going to Lake Winnipeg are are smaller than than we see going, you know, to the south down towards in in the Mississippi Basin, but the percentages are about the same or a little bit a little bit more than we're looking at, a, you know, 53 reduction as needed, you know, in nitrogen. And, you know, there are and that was based on kind of monitoring data and and and work done up in in Canada and North Dakota, Minnesota through there's an international Red River board. And so they kinda set those set those kinda targets, and that's something they may they may revisit in the future, but not right now. They're not, you know, looking at changing those.
Brad Carlson:Obviously, the Red River is the border between Minnesota and North Dakota. So, you know, a significant chunk of that water is also coming out of North Dakota. How do we know how much is coming out of Minnesota, and and what do we think is coming out of Minnesota?
Matt Drewitz:Yes. And for Minnesota, it's you know, North Dakota, it's about pretty equal in the amount of load that's coming, you know, into the Red River, you know, so we kinda treat it, you know, in that regards. I was just actually speaking with some folks from North Dakota yesterday, and they were talking about, you know, all the efforts they're doing. They have a number of special projects they're doing along the river as well. So we're trying to coordinate with them more in the future kind of the work that we're doing in Minnesota.
Matt Drewitz:We've got a lot of work that we've done for with a lot of the watershed districts and and the river basin where they've done, like, water storage projects and other types of BMPs and and trying to look at, well, what are we doing versus their work as we move forward?
Brad Carlson:Well, and you just brought up another interesting topic, and I think this is pertinent statewide, and that's the topic of water storage that, you know, we've had this it's long it's been a long a a matter of discussion relative to phosphorus issues in Southern Minnesota, the extent to which stream bank erosion is is contributing to that problem. But we also talked about the fact that the total amount of nitrogen is a factor of how much water is moving through the stream. And we're kind of in a position now where we're looking at retaining water on the landscape in a lot of cases, or at the very least slowing it down, both to reduce the amount of bank erosion caused by stream flows, to reduce flooding, of course, which is not a nutrient reduction strategy issue, but it certainly is a societal issue that we all deal with. And then, you know, ultimately, you know, hoping that some of that water just simply doesn't end up in the river at all. It evaporates or gets used by crops or plants or whatever because it stays up on the landscape.
Brad Carlson:So so where are we at with with with setting goals for for water retention on the landscape?
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. We're you know, there's different different ways, you know, with within the nutrient strategy, we talk about various types of different practices, you know, that we would like to, you know, kinda see on the landscape such as, you know, we've got, you know, wetland restorations that we've we've done through many, you know, various programs over the years and and drainage water management practices, which are, I guess, novel in the last couple decades, you know, looking how we can, you know, treat water on the landscape, maybe holding the tile lines, then treat some of the water before it goes into a to a stream on the nitrogen side of things. So for some of those drainage water management practices, we don't have a lot on on the ground, but, you know, we're hoping to get more of those, you know, in the future. A lot of times for goals when it comes for, like, storing water on the land, we've kind of relied on a lot of our local OneWarShed, One Plan programs where they have a requirement to have kind of a water storage goal for each of their plans. And so they've been kind of working locally, like, works best because depending on where you are in the state, especially even within, like, the Minnesota River Basin, there are different strategies you wanna use in different parts, different landscapes.
Matt Drewitz:So I think there's been a concerted effort to kind of as as a as a collective kinda working together on those strategies.
Brad Carlson:Well, and and so you can bring up the one water, one plan, and and really that's kinda where the the rubber meets the road in Minnesota as far as getting stuff done. I've been trying to stress to farmers that that this is a strategy. It's a plan. It's not a rule. And so the idea here is is we're we're trying to do things to reach the goals in the plan.
Brad Carlson:And so a lot of that happens locally with with those local watershed plans. And so so, Matt, how how do how do the folks locally that are administering those plans, how do they interface with the nutrient reduction strategy? Because they've got competing demands, you know, for other local priorities in their watersheds also.
Matt Drewitz:Right. Yeah. And we've been working. MPC has been working with the Bordeaux Water and Soil Resources and our other partners too on how to better, you know, over time incorporate some of the elements, especially the new data that we have and priority zones that we've kind of identified within the nutrient strategy and how we can pull those into watershed plans as they're being updated. Because at at this point, we we almost have state coverage now of of of watershed based plans.
Matt Drewitz:And so at those times, you know, five or ten year intervals, we'll be updating, you know, reevaluating their plans. And so we'll we're gonna be working on some guidance kind of jointly between Bowser and and MPCA, and and that local governments can, you know, utilize and and be working doing some outreach as well on how they can use this information and help in decisions on that.
Brad Carlson:I know just from past experience, and and I'm I'm not meaning this to be overly critical, but I know that as you go around the state, there tends to be some people in local areas that really favor one practice or over another. You know? This this county really loves cover crops, and this county's putting in sediment bases all over the place and so forth. You know? How how do you guys work with that when there does seem to be a little bit of a disconnect from one county to the next as far as where their priorities lie with doing stuff?
Matt Drewitz:Yeah. Think we realized through the, you know, this this update to the nutrient reduction strategy, there are some practices, especially like like nutrient management's a good example of where we need to have that kinda covered everywhere. It's not something that you know, it's kinda like a a baseline thing that we need to need to address. And so how do we get better, you know, coverage of that and and making sure that all our partners are kind of focusing, you know, on, say, on that type of practice or if it's, you know, putting in more, you know, living cover, things like that. So I think it's an issue that's been brought up with the nutrient strategy and how we can, like, may work better regionally, thinking about that more than, you know, beyond the watershed you know, smaller watershed boundaries.
Matt Drewitz:And also looking at, you know, if there's any federal initiatives, you know, through through USDA or whatever that we could do some larger projects where we could kinda focus on a specific nitrogen reducing practices, I think, would be important.
Brad Carlson:Yeah. And, you know, and and we've talked about this in the past because we've got our whole curriculum in advanced nitrogen smart on reducing nitrate lost to water that there's there's really, like, three big baskets full of practices. We got nutrient management, which, of course, we tend to spend a lot of our time focusing on, you know, in the this podcast and so forth. But then we've also got the living cover stuff, which is cover crops or or switching crop rotations and incorporating perennial crops or pasture or other stuff. And then we've got the edge of field practices, which are looking at trying to intercept the water and try to reduce the amount of nitrate in that water before it ends up going into the river.
Brad Carlson:A lot of those haven't really happened in Minnesota yet to any extent, and and so, you know, how do we know how do we really even know, like, how many how many acres there are that are are good fits for that and what the performance is gonna be and so forth? Because, you know, the the number of I don't I don't I seem to remember, like, the number of saturated buffers, for instance, in Minnesota, I mean, I don't I don't think there's even a half a dozen of them, you know, and and bioreactors, there's probably a dozen or or or so, you know, so these are practices that we're calling out in the nutrient reduction strategy is playing a significant role, yet we haven't even really begun to start rolling them out in Minnesota.
Matt Drewitz:I agree with you, Brad, that, you know, we haven't really seen a lot of those practices, you know, get into the landscape. We are seeing, you know, especially like in Iowa, we're seeing a higher uptick of those practices. They've got a batch and build program where they're picking certain small watersheds and really working with all the landowners to get these practices on the ground and then kinda seeing what the what the effects will be. And we've seen that in Minnesota, but in kind of smaller smaller pockets. And so I think one of the things that we we did through this nutrient strategy update is we we ups we updated the whole science assessment on nitrogen and phosphorus.
Matt Drewitz:And and doctor Laura Christensen, who's an expert on on these practices, really helped build together the the nitrogen component on that research. And so I think there's kind of both a need to try to, you know, find financial assistance or other other means to help farmers and, you know, install these practices at a higher rate and take some of the risk out of putting these practices on the ground. And also doing some additional research in in colder climates like Minnesota where to see if they're effective or not and and seeing if different combinations of practices will would make more sense or be more cost effective.
Brad Carlson:You know, I've long said to to farmers or ag professionals, your point of contact is your county soil and water conservation district or in parts of the state where there's watershed districts. So those folks also are points of contact. So we're kind of getting towards the end here, Matt. So for people who are interested, tell us how to find the nutrient reduction strategy online so folks can read that and look at the details if they want to.
Matt Drewitz:You could just go and Google our site. It's just if you just put in Minnesota nutrient reduction strategy and put 2025, it'll bring you right to our page. And on that website, we have it's about 300 page document, which is the main strategy.
Brad Carlson:I know. I read it!
Matt Drewitz:It's a large document. There's another over 20 supporting documents that is it's about 1,200 pages.
Brad Carlson:I didn't read the 1,200 pages. I I stuck to the 300.
Matt Drewitz:So there's there's a lot of information there.
Matt Drewitz:We also have some links to various, like, web applications that we have that display some of the data in a in a easy to use interface, and we'll be looking at developing a dashboard to to bring this information more to life in the future. So that's there as well.
Brad Carlson:Well, that sounds really good, Matt. Thanks for joining us today.
Matt Drewitz:Thank you, Brad. Appreciate it.
Jack Wilcox:Do you have a question about something on your farm? Just send us an email here at nutmgmt@umn.edu. Thanks a lot for listening and we look forward to seeing you next time.
Jack Wilcox:Advancing Nitrogen Smart is proud to be supported by the farm families of Minnesota and their corn checkoff investment through Minnesota Corn.
