Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE)
http://cgee.hamline.edu

About the organization
Part of the Graduate School of Education at Hamline University, CGEE fosters environmental literacy and stewardship in citizens of all ages.

Respondent: Peggy Knapp, director, Rivers of Life program

How important to you is the river or stream nearest your home, and why?
I live near Minnehaha Creek, and it's extremely important to me. It's a living flow that connects me to the Mississippi River, its culture, music, economy, science, history and ecological wealth.

How can citizens find out about the condition of the river nearest their homes or communities?
Every river, and every watershed is watched over and cared for by several agencies that fall into some general categories. Look for "Soil and Water Conservation Districts," "Watershed Districts," or ask your local wastewater treatment facility for water quality information and contacts.

What can homeowners do to make their land and property more river friendly? What can farmers do? Business owners?
Homeowners can practice good river and watershed stewardship by composting yard waste, picking up pet waste, forgoing the use of fertilizers, washing the car anywhere but on the street, and generally not putting anything into the storm drains that they don't want to drink. If it falls on the street, it flows into the river, so if you don't want to drink it, don't put it on the street.

Farmers can adopt sustainable practices such as conservation tillage, planting buffer strips between fields and their streams or rivers, planting cover crops to slow erosion, and taking advantage of centuries of traditional wisdom about land use.

What are the most important actions citizens can take to help clean up Minnesota's rivers?
Slow development: parking lots and other paved surfaces increase runoff and non-point source pollution.

Compost: keep yard waste out of the waterways and solid waste systems.

Landscape for sustainability: plant native plants, use fertilizers sparingly if at all, reduce your water usage on outdoor landscapes.

What are policymakers doing to enhance the current and future health of Minnesota's rivers? What should they be doing?
Policymakers are finally addressing watershed issues of sprawl, the profusion of impermeable or paved surfaces, and by law are addressing the impacts of non-point source pollution.

They can do more. Banning phosphorus in fertilizers will help, reducing solid waste will help, but ultimately, we have to shift our value system. If we don't create policies that put the health of our water systems first, before economic interest, and all the other voices involved in making policy, we have no assurance that our water systems will remain healthy enough to sustain us.

River policymakers must address diverse and often competing elements such as the environment, commerce, flood control, recreation, and land use—but from your point of view, what overarching values should guide how we use, treat, and manage rivers?
Keep in mind without adequate clean water, we don't have an economy, we don't have recreation, we don't have much of anything. The water doesn't need us to sustain itself, we need the water. And nothing, but nothing, is an adequate substitute. Above all, the health of the water should be first. Without that, our other systems are crippled.

How can we manage the conflict of private land use and the best management practices for our rivers?
The world is too small for a resource as essential as water to be governed by the whims and vagaries of private land use. We are all responsible, or should be, for the health of the water. Even here in the U.S., with all our "personal rights" we are responsible to each other and the land. As thorny as the issue is, the health of the water system has to be first in policy decisions.

How important is the development of a land-use plan in the watersheds that feed our rivers? Do you have a land-use plan?
If we don't have a land use plan, we have no control over the factors that contribute the health of the watershed. The Twin cities Metro-area has over 44 organizations that work together on watershed issues through a collaborative organization called the Watershed Partners. It is unique in its focus on collaborative education efforts. In addition, the Metropolitan Council has taken a strong leadership role in creating development and land-use studies and plans for our watershed.

What programs are available—and are more needed—to educate and inform citizens, river users, river property owners, and policymakers about river issues?
There are so many, it would be impossible to list them here. Please visit the Watershed Partners web site at http://cgee.hamline.edu/watershed
to see the partners, and for more information.

How does Mississippi River quality change as it flows from the headwaters to the Twin Cities and beyond? What is Minnesota's accountability to the states that have to treat, filter, and use the water after it leaves Minnesota?
The water changes from nearly clear, sweet water at the headwaters to a yellow-brown in the Twin Cities. Just below the confluence of the Minnesota, it gets really nasty.

We have a responsibility to keep the water clean for those who live downstream, because everyone lives downstream from someone. We also have a responsibility to reduce our part of the non-point source pollution load that runs into the river from o9ur streets and parking lots.

How does air pollution affect our rivers? Air pollution, in the form of acid rain, has a major effect on water quality. Acids in the air — oxides of nitrogen and sulfur — react with the water and start a process in which mercury (also an air-borne pollutant) is converted into a form that is absorbed by fish, and stored in their fatty tissues. Because MN has no limestone to neutralize the acid, it is a particularly bad problem here.

What joint efforts (other than testing) have begun statewide to improve the quality of our rivers for drinking and fishing? MN is addressing non-point source pollution by education the public through efforts like those of the Watershed Partners. Farmers are learning about buffer strips, and conservation tillage. Overall, the state is working very hard to educate the players whose behaviors affect water quality.

What measures, if any, are being taken to alert the wide range of cultures living along our rivers not to swim in, drink, or eat fish from the waters of the Mississippi River? Advisories are posted in many languages along rivers and streams, but it will take much more education by many more partners to reach everyone.