Proposed Additional Annual Fanding
FY-04 | FY-96 Evoz | Fy.0e | Fy-08

Budget Ver 4



Engineers, will help decision-makers target resources to address major sediment and
nutrient soutces.

e Coordinate Activities - Although agencies will retain control of bi and program
administration, a public-private interagency advisory group will be established to provide
direction and guidance through annual recommendations to resource managers, grant-
making agencies and legislatures. This 15-member advisory group will represent the
diverse community of public and private stakeholders concerned about the Upper
Mississippi River. group, administered by the Resource Studies Center, will provide
regular updates to basin interests through a website, newsletter, and other media, and
coordinate public and private watershed management efforts. A series of teams will be
created d to address specific issues, including water quality monitoring, modeling, and
outreach,

© Develop New Solutions - A new grant program will fund universities, private

izations, and local governments to develop new practices, measure the economic

tisks associated with new practices, identify proper incentives, and predict the social and
economic costs and benefits of alternative solutions.

e Expand Outreach Efforts - Existing but difficult to access information and new
information developed through this partnership will be made widely available to create a
common understanding of the problems created by nutrient and sediment loss,
successful solutions, what we are learning through our efforts. Both success stories
and failures will be communicated to all stakeholders concerned about better sediment

and nutrient management.

e Increase and Target Technical and Financial Assistance - Once monitoring and
modeling efforts have identified high priority watersheds and long-term needs, federal
programs which provide voluntary ical and financial assistance to urban and rural

lowners and wastewater treatment plants will be expanded to address these areas.
New incentive problems will also be implemented.

fopm: id Timelins
The Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative will be developed in two phases.

During the first phase, a basinwide water quality monitoring network will be developed. The
monitoring network, along with computer models, will be used to identify subwatersheds
which are major sources of sediment and nutrients and create a baseline against which
progress can be measured. The Resource Studies Center will lead coordination activities,
including the creation of the 15-member advisory council and establishment of teams to
develop the monitoting, modeling and outreach components of the initiative. This phase is
expected to take two years.

During the second phase, the advisory council, in collaboration with basin stakeholders, will

- implement a basinwide plan which increases and targets funding for voluntary practices that

luce sediment and nutrient loss, develops and demonstrates new solutions, and expands

outreach efforts. Federal funding to landowners implementing voluntary practices would be

dually increased during the second phase. Existing programs, such as the Environmental

ity tives Program and Section 319 Program, would be used to provide new funds

to urban and rural landowners in high priority watersheds, but new programs may be
cteated.

This strategy was developed by diverse interests to ensure inclusiveness, and the 15-member
advisory group will continue to reflect these diverse interests as the program evolves.


BRINGING RIVERS TO LIFE.

ra

- American Rivers
July 29, 1999 _ een

Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Working Group
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
WS 13446 SSMC4

1305 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed you will find a copy of the Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative, a proposal to significantly reduce
polluted runoff in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Please include this letter and the proposal as comments to the
“Topical Scientific Reports for an Integrated Assessment of the Causes and Consequences of Hypoxia in the Gulf of
Mexico.” . .

The Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative was developed over three years of collaboration among citizens of the

five Upper Mississippi River Basin states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, Through the Upper
Mississippi River Summit, citizens, agency officials, local advocacy groups, and legislators came together to discuss

river issues in an open and non-confrontational manner. After several years of discussion about “doing something”

about such issues as habitat loss, navigation improvements and flood control, participants have agreed resoundingly .
that the primary threat to the Upper Mississippi River is polluted runoff from throughout the basin.

The recognition of the severity of the threat of sediment and nutrient runoff led to the development of the

- Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative. The Initiative proposes to use existing federal authorities to identify high
priority watersheds and sub-watersheds in the Upper Basin, increase and target technical assistance to landowners,
develop new and innovative solutions to polluted runoff, expand information sharing among federal agencies, and
expand monitoring efforts.

Polluted runoff impacts a watershed localty as well as downstream. ‘The benefits of reducing sediment and nutrient
inputs into the Upper Mississippi River Basin will cut across many social and economic interests in the basin. In
addition, such reductions also have the great potential of contributing to a suite of ‘efforts to reduce Gulf of Mexico
Hypoxia. .

The Upper Mississippi River is a river on the decline. Critical fish and wildlife habitat is lost faster than it can be
ieplaced By fedecal programs. Farmers lose $300 million annually in applied nitrogen loss, navigstion chennel
dredging costs exceed $100 million annually, and habitat restoration efforts on the Upper Mississippi River exceed
$33 million. Implementation of the Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative on the Upper Mississippi River would
provide federal agencies and private landowners the tools they need to reduce polluted runoff, potentially reducing
the cost 6f channel maintenance, minimizing nitrogen loss from farm fields, and protecting critical river habitat. -

As with all rivers, the effects of local actions are not just felt locally, but travel downstream. The Mississippi River
‘Stewardship Initiative has the potential to have significant positive impacts on local watersheds, but it also has the
potential to have similar impacts downstream.

Sincerely, f 2
og , A .

Mississippi River Regional Representative

Mississippt RIVER REGIONAL OFFICE * KAHL BUILDING * 326 W. THIRD STREET * SurTE 714 * DAVENPORT, IOWA 52801

(319) 884-4481 © (319) 884-4511 FAX © jstcin@amrivers.org * www.amrivers.org
QR Printed om 100% recycled paper PCF wish sey ink

amber taeior



Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative:
A Public-Private Partnership to Reduce Sediment and Nutrient Loss in the Upper
Mississippi River Basin

Prepared by:
Resource Studies Center, St. Mary’s University

Public and private interests from the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Hlinois, lowa and
Missouri have developed a citizen-led, incentive-based initiative to reduce the amount of
sediment and nutrients enteting the Upper Mississippi River.

Each year, sediment and nutrients are inadvertently washed off the landscape, into feeder
streams, and ultimately.into the Mississippi River - reducing farm income, increasing channel
maintenance costs, threatening drinking water supplies and filling side channels by river
wildlife. The costs rear a with sediment 3 aod nutrient loss are enormous, — farmers
annually lose more million in applied nitrogen, dredging costs anm top $100
million, and habitat preservation efforts will soon reach $33 million a year. vier

Although agencies, institutions and individuals have struggled to reduce ‘nutrient and
sediment loss, only modest gains have been made. Most rivers and streams in the Upper
Mississippi River basin continue to suffer from the effects of sediment and nutrients. There
are many reasons - insufficient resources, inadequate information sharing, failure to set
priorities, and lack of effective coordination.

To reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients entering the Upper Mississippi River,
Congtess should implement the Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative. This public-private
pattnership will identify major sources of sediments and nutrients, increase and target
technical and financial assistance, develop and implement new solutions, expand efforts to
share information, create a basinwide monitoring network, and establish a 15-member
advisoty group to coordinate public and private activities.

Sediment and Nutrient Loss

Although landscapes natutally erode, human activities like residential and commercial
development, road construction, and agriculture accelerate the movement of sand and silt
into rivers. Larger particles fill in the Mississippi’s navigation channel, increasing the cost of
providing a reliable tation link to foreign markets. Today, annual channel
mnaintenance costs top $10 million. As the contimues ¢e fili with sediment and
adequate dre disposal sites yw tate, the movement o! million tons of cargo,
including oe petroleum products, could be threatened.

particles also fill wetlands and side channels - important nurseries for river wildlife.
As these side channels are lost, scientists predict that the Upper Mississippi River will feature
fewer areas that can support migratory waterfowl and experience a shift away from
desirable game fish to less desirable species. Smaller Particles increase the cloudiness of
river water, reducing the penetration of sunlight needed for the growth of aquatic plants, an
important food soutce for fish and waterfowl. As they reach the Mississippi, smaller particles
tend to settle in slow-moving backwaters, smotheting mollusks and other invertebrates and
contributing to a loose river bottom that is not suitable for aquatic plant growth. In
combination, the loss of side channels and aquatic plants threatens the river’s $1.2 billion
recteation-industry.
Nutrients are released into the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries from many
sources, including wastewater treatment plants, ‘suburban backyards and farm fields. Once
nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous reach rivets and streams, they ignite a biological and



chemical chain reaction that reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in river water, limiting
the diversity of species that can survive. In rare cases, nutrient levels exceed federal safety

standards, tening drinking water supplies.

Although wastewater treatment plants are a significant source of nitrogen and phosphorus,
aitneae lowe is accelerated by the remarkable amount of food production in Basin states.
Mote of the land drained by the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries is used to grow
crops than in any other river basin in the nation. states of Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa
ate among those with the preatest percentage of cultivated land, the highest rate of nitrogen
fertilizer application, and the greatest amount of artificially drained soils. Although the
Upper Mississippi River contributes 22% of the water flowing into the Lower Mississippi
River, the Upper Mississippi contributes 31% of the nitrogen.

it Constraint

Many people do not understand their contribution to the sediment and nutrients that
accumulate in the Uppet Mississippi River. Though many know that the Mississippi suffers
from excess “pollution,” few Tae their actions with the fate of the river. Backyards,
construction sites, farm fields, storm drains all contribute sediment and nutrients - but
homeowners, developers, farmers and city officials rarely link their actions with a river which
may be miles away. Resource managers and policymakers also ignore vatiations in the
landscape, leading to a “one-size-fits-all approach” to soils with remarkably different
characteristics.

In addition, many people underestimate the costs of sediment and nutrient loss, the role they
can play to reduce those costs, and the savings associated with practices which reduce
sediment and nutrient loss. Conversely, resource managets and policymakers often
underestimate the economic risks taken by landowners that are asked to adopt new practices.
Many incentive programs fail to teflect the risk landowners take when they adopt new
technologies or land management practices.

Although there are more than 75 local, state and federal public and privately- funded
programs designed to address sediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River

asin, resource managers do not collaborate to identify and address significant sources,
monitor results, share information or set priorities. Consequently, programs often overlap,
gaps are left unfilled, and scarce resources not used efficiently.

ississi

In order to reduce sediment and nutrient loss, policymakers must adopt a coordinated
public-private approach that takes action, monitors the results, shares information and
makes adjustments. The Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative is designed to identify major
sources of sediment and nutrients, increase and target technical and financial assistance,
develop and demonstrate new solutions, use water quality monitoring and computer models
to set goals and measure success, expand efforts to share information, and coordinate public
and private programs to collaboratively set and meet priorities. By increasing resources and
collaboration, and by establishing a feedback loop to support periodic adjustments, the
Stewardship Initiative is designed to make wiser use of scarce resources.

In particular, the Stewardship Initiative will:

e Create a Basin-Wide Monitoring Network - Expanding public and private
monitoring efforts to create a basin-wide monitoring network will allow resource
managers to identify which subwatersheds are major sources of nutrients and sediments,
target fesources, measure success, and make adjustments. Citizen-led
monitoring, in combination with computer modeling by the U.S. Army Corps of