amberwaves series

By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
Farm drainage is a relatively straightforward process.
Farmers bury a series of underground tile lines in
their fields with the tile emptying into the open ditches
that people are accustomed to seeing as they drive
through the countryside.
Those ditches carry the water to lakes, streams and
rivers.
The Minnesota River ends up with much of that
water — the Minnesota River Basin drains 10 million
acres of land, or about 20 percent of the state’s landscape.
Tile drainage was introduced to the United States in
1838 by a Scottish immigrant who labored to lay 72
miles of clay tile on 320 acres of land on his New York
farm. The results were phenomenal, jumping his wheat
yield form 12 bushels per acre to 60 bushels.
Farming moved slowly to the Midwest because of the
lack of well-drained land, and Congress and the states in
SERVING MANKATO AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MINNESOTA
December 4, 2011
Please see FARMING, Page A6
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WASHING AWAY
Studies pin river troubles
on farm drainage
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
From
amber waves
Seth Greenwood has
to
watched parts of
Seven Mile Creek
County Park
between Mankato and St.
Peter disappear.
“The Minnesota River is
eating the bank away,” said
the Nicollet County public
works director. “It’s really bad
on that bend on the river. Five
to 15 feet of bank has gone just this year.”
muddy
waters
The environmental threat
of the Minnesota River
Part 1 of a 5
Much of that sediment will likely end up in the
Mississippi River and settle to the bottom of Lake
Pepin.
While intense efforts to improve the Minnesota
River have gone on for 20 years, now there is a major
convergence of better data and mounting political
pressure that is bringing to a head problems of suspended
solids in the river.
The issue is creating growing friction between farmers
and environmentalists and residents on Lake Pepin
who are suffering from the Minnesota’s pollution.
The millions of tons of sediment getting into the
river is emerging as the keystone issue facing the river
basin. The impacts on the Mississippi, Lake Pepin and
the river basin’s contribution to the Gulf “dead zone”
are sweeping and the potential solutions expensive,
controversial and complicated, considering the
Minnesota watershed covers 16,000 square miles.
Decades of scientific research — bolstered by new
techniques such as using radioactive isotopes to trace
where dirt particles originated — offer a few major
findings:
■ The amount of sediment getting into the river has
increased dramatically — tenfold its natural rate by
some estimates.
■ Two-thirds or more of the river’s sediment load
comes from eroding streambanks and bluffs.
Please see TROUBLES, Page A6
Farming flourishes
with drainage
John Cross
Seth Greenwood, Nicollet County public works director, surveys Minnesota River bank erosion along
Seven Mile Creek County Park. About 15 feet of bank were swept into the river during spring flooding.
Courtesy of Cottonwood County Historical Society
Workers hand dig trenches to install cement tile lines in a field
near Amboy in about 1900.
Radioactive
particles used to
track sediment
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
Call it “CSI Minnesota
River.”
They’re not crime fighters,
but top researchers.
Their job is to look for the
sources of sediment that
annually flows into the
Minnesota River and then
into the Mississippi. How
much comes from the millions
of acres of farm land in
the watershed and how much
from streambanks and
ravines?
In the recent past, quantifying
where sediment was
coming from was very difficult,
if not impossible.
Please see SEDIMENT, Page A7
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IN NEWS, A8
THE RISKS OF
HIGH STANDARDS
Cain
out of
GOP
race
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — A defiant
Herman Cain suspended his
faltering bid for the
Republican presidential
nomination Saturday amid a
drumbeat of sexual misconduct
allegations against him,
throwing his staunchly conservative
supporters up for
grabs with just one month
to go before the lead-off caucuses
in Iowa.
Cain condemned the
accusations as “false and
unproven” but said they had
been hurtful to his family,
particularly his wife, Gloria,
and were drowning out his
ability to deliver his message.
His wife stood behind
him on the stage, smiling
and waving as the crowd
chanted her name.
“So as of today, with a lot
of prayer and soul-searching,
I am suspending my
presidential campaign
because of the continued
distractions and the continued
hurt caused on me and
Please see CAIN, Page A10
Cutting
deficits
easier said
than done
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
coming year-end spending
spree after so much debate
over budget deficits shows
just how hard it is to stem
the government’s flow of red
ink.
Lawmakers are poised to
spend $120 billion or so to
renew a Social Security tax
cut that averaged just under
$1,000 per household this
year. They’re ready to commit
up to $50 billion more
to continue unemployment
benefits to people out of
work for more than half a
year.
And doctors have no reason
to doubt they won’t be
Please see DEFICITS, Page A8
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FROM AMBER WAVES TO MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
A6 The Free Press / Sunday, December 4, 2011
TROUBLES: Limited funding doesn’t address all the issues
Continued from Page A1
■ Compared to the past,
here is much more water
lowing into the river more
uickly. Part of that comes
rom more frequent and
eavy rains. But more and
ore, researchers are coninced
the high, fast waters
earing into streambanks
re largely the result of
xtensive farm drainage that
as changed the hydrology
f the landscape.
■ The more powerful
lows are altering the river.
he Minnesota River from
ankato to St. Paul has
idened by 50 percent since
938. The scene along
even Mile Creek County
ark is playing out all along
he lower half of the
innesota River.
Continued from Page A1
yriad studies
Farm groups have begun
more aggressive campaign
o counter the image of
rainage as the primary foe,
ointing to research that
igh bluff erosion and bank
rosion are coming from
ore precipitation.
But researchers increasngly
say otherwise.
“We don’t know absolutey
everything,” said Norman
enjem, who recently retired
rom the Minnesota
ollution Control Agency
fter many years of overseeng
river research. “But postorld
War II to about 1980
s when we see the biggest
ptick in sediment, the
iggest uptick in Lake Pepin
illing in. It’s the time of
ncreased mechanization in
griculture.
“Precipitation plays a role,
ut primarily it’s landscape
hanges.”
Shannon Fisher, who
eads the Water Resources
enter based at Minnesota
tate University and is
irector of the multi-county
innesota River Board, said
e’s seen enough credible
esearch to believe farm
rainage is a major factor.
“In my opinion, the
rainage we’re doing is havng
an impact on the hydrolgy
and we’re going to have
o address it. Water storage
on the landscape) is going
o be very important, and
t’s hard to sell to people as
e put more tile in the
round.”
The latest study to peg
arm drainage as the culprit
as recently released by scintists
at the St. Croix
atershed Research Station
nd the University of
innesota. The research
ncluded examination of 70
ears’ worth of records on
ainfall, flow and land use
hanges along the 21 tribuaries
to the Minnesota
iver.
Shawn Schottler, one of
he scientists who worked
n the research, said everyone
agrees streambank and
bluff erosion are putting a
majority of sediment in the
river. Their latest study
looked at how much of that
could be tied to increased
precipitation.
“Of course the (river)
flow goes up when it rains
more. Precipitation has gone
up about 8 percent since
1940. Has flow gone up proportionally
with that? No,
it’s gone up more than that.”
And Schottler said climatology
records show precipitation
has not increased in
May and June in southern
Minnesota, months that
river levels are often
highest.
Schottler said erosion of
riverbanks and widening of
the channel are natural
occurrences on any river,
but it’s been greatly accelerated
on the Minnesota. And
while much of the sediment
that erodes into rivers
under normal conditions
settles somewhere in the
same river, sediment in the
Minnesota is flowing out
into the Mississippi at a
higher rate.
“If you go to non-ag
watersheds, there is still
erosion but no increase in
sediment leaving the river.”
Solutions elusive
Fisher worries that limited
funding to help improve the
river may be targeted to a
tiny portion of the problem.
There are two things
involved in looking at suspended
solids in the river:
the physical sediment (dirt)
and the biological. The biological
side includes things
such as algae blooms created
by excess phosphorus in the
river.
Much of the focus has
been on reducing phosphorus,
which comes from fertilizers
and city wastewater
treatment plants. With treatment
plants having been
the 1850s stepped in to
speed up tiling. They
offered tax credits for buying
tile and sold marshland
at a steep discount on condition
it be tiled and
drained. At the same time
states began organizing
local elected drainage supervisory
boards — which continue
today as Soil and
Water Conservation
Districts in Minnesota.
The pace of drainage
accelerated at the end of the
1800s and into the early
1900s, including during the
Great Depression when the
Civilian Conservation Corps
was deployed to expand the
drainage system in the
Midwest.
Still, hand-laying heavy
sections of clay or concrete
tile in trenches — dug first
by hand and later by backhoes
— remained labor
intensive and relatively
expensive.
The introduction of plastic
tile pipes in the late
1970s changed all of that.
Rather than having to lay
individual sections of concrete
tile end to end,
installers only have to unroll
a continuous section of lightweight
flexible plastic tile.
The plastic tile has small
holes in it to bring the water
inside the tile line. GPS systems
guide the installers as
they lay the tile.
The process has become
advanced and simple enough
upgraded all along the river
— including in Mankato and
St. Peter — that source of
phosphorus has been significantly
reduced.
Still, Fisher said, much of
the funding is being aimed at
further improving Twin
Cities metro area wastewater
treatment and storm water
storage.
“The MPCA studies are
calling for 1 percent of the
problem to be fixed in the
metro area for $850 million.
I struggle with spending that
to fix 1 percent of the problem,”
Fisher said.
“I understand they want
Pat Christman
Shannon Fisher (left), who heads the Water Resources Center, catalogs fish caught in nets on the Minnesota
River with the help of Minnesota State University students.
Upcoming: Day 2: Monday
Muddy Minnesota impacts Lake Pepin
Lake Pepin resident Mike McKay pored through
research on the Minnesota River and upper Mississippi
and was amazed at the large scope of scientific
research done. He’s also amazed so little has been
accomplished when the research is clear on most of the
causes. Minnesota River sediment is filling Lake Pepin
at a pace 10 times the natural rate.
“We don’t know
absolutely
everything. But
post-World War II
to about 1980 is
when we see the
biggest uptick in
sediment, the
biggest uptick in
Lake Pepin filling
in. It’s the time
of increased
mechanization in
agriculture.”
NORMAN SENJEM,
retired researcher with the
Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency
that farmers can purchase
their own trencher and plastic
tile, allowing them to
install their own drainage
systems.
No one knows how many
miles of the plastic and concrete
tile exist on farm fields
across the Minnesota River
watershed.
The only significant regulations
associated with tiling
are those that prevent farmers
from draining an existing
wetland, which can be a
year-round marsh or a socalled
“seasonal wetland”
that has historically filled
with some water during wet
periods.
Farmers are not required
to inform any agency if and
Submitted photo
Norman Senjem recently retired from the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency after many years of overseeing river research.
when they tile, but they can
be held accountable if it’s
found they drained a wetland
area.
Farmers can and many do
go to the USDA Natural
Resources Conservation
Services office and file a
form of their tiling plans.
The NRCS then reviews the
farmer’s land records to
everyone to do their part.
Politically, (farm) producers
say urban areas need to do
their part. I understand
that.”
Fisher said he’d rather see
metro-area cities and the
state put some funding into
upgrading municipal systems,
but put a majority of
the money into projects that
reduce sediment loading and
erosion along the river valley.
One way to do that is to
create systems that store
water so it can be released
more slowly into the rivers.
A project near Mapleton, for
example, creates an overflow
basin alongside drainage
ditches. Other projects use
farm tile drainage systems
that, through a series of
smaller tiles or mechanical
gates, slow the rate of water
draining from fields.
The mechanical tile systems
are, however, more
expensive to install and
maintain and don’t work
well on sloped farm fields.
The storage basins along
ditches take crop land out of
production.
Anything taking land out
of row-crop production runs
up against skyrocketing
farmland prices. In fact, the
amount of land in grass and
vegetation is likely to lessen
in coming years as it is
pulled out of the
Conservation Reserve
Program. CRP pays
landowners to keep environmentally
sensitive land out
of production for a set number
of years.
Statewide, about 128,000
acres of CRP contracts will
soon expire, while only
about 33,000 acres were
enrolled during the recent
spring sign-up period.
In the next three years,
more than 550,000 acres of
CRP are scheduled to
expire.
Conservationists believe
much of that land won’t be
re-enrolled in the program
because of high farmland
and crop prices.
Another partial solution,
which does not take farmland
out of production, is to
shore up steep bluffs to slow
erosion. On the Le Sueur
River, crews are using a mixture
of trees, sand and dirt
to weave a protective barrier
over the surface of steep
bluffs and river banks. It’s
similar to the traditional
stone rip-rap but costs about
three-fourths less.
Fisher would like to see
more focus on similar projects
in the Le Sueur and
Blue Earth river basins —
both of which contribute
mightily to the sediment in
the river.
“For less money we could
target some higher-priority
areas more intensely. We
know, bluff by bluff, where
the problems are. If we want
to make an impact, why not
take big chunks of money
and hit those areas hard?”
Dennis Frederickson, a
former Republican state senator
from New Ulm who is
now the Department of
Natural Resources director
of southern Minnesota, is
known for his support of the
river and keen ability as a
conservative senator to get
environmental projects
approved in the Legislature.
“Certainly drainage off
the landscape, from fields
and other lands, is a contributor
to some of that impairment,”
Frederickson said.
“Agriculture is a huge economic
factor in the
Minnesota River watershed
and the state, so what we do
needs to make economic
sense for the farmers and
make sense for the river.”
Frederickson said everyone
needs to focus on solutions
that can make a difference
rather than spending
too much time arguing
about fault.
“It’s important not to
square off in issue groups or
stakeholder groups one
against the other. Every segment
in society contributes
to the impairment of the
river. We need to spend our
time and money determining
how to improve those
impairments instead of arguing
about where the faults
are.”
Frederickson said dealing
with issues related to agriculture
may be thorny but
not impossible.
“We’ve dealt with issues
with herbicide and pesticide
and genetics over the years.
Let’s use that same creativity
to find how we can farm
and raise the abundant
crops we do without impairing
the waters.”
While agriculture is a
powerful economic and lobbying
force, pressure from
urban policymakers and
those around Lake Pepin are
increasingly calling for more
regulation of agriculture
drainage.
“The question from urban
residents is, why do we need
to control anything more
than an inch of rain off our
landscape when the rural
areas don’t have to?” Fisher
said.
“We have an urbanized
Legislature that is pushing
this more and more. The
discussion is will there ever
be a requirement for more
water storage on the landscape.
It would be huge
amounts of land taken out of
production,” Fisher said.
“It’s a fair question, but
there are no easy answers.”
FARMING: No one knows how many miles of plastic and tile exist
Drainage tile now comes in large rolls of plastic tile that are quickly laid in the ground behind large trenching machines.
John Cross
River podcast
on the web
To hear a podcast with Editor
Joe Spear and Staff Writer
Tim Krohn discussing this
series, go to
www.mankatofreepress.com
and type “river podcast” into
the search bar at the top of
the page.
make sure they are not tiling
in a designated wetland area.
Ryan Braulick of the
Mankato NRCS office said
they get 250 to 300 such
requests each year with the
number of requests up some
this year.
“Farmers aren’t required
to (file the form), but many
of them do because it’s in
their best interest. If they
tile where they shouldn’t,
they could jeopardize their
enrollment in the Farm
Program.”
Braulick said his office
does not do any
enforcement.
“We’re not wetland cops.
We don’t go out and look
for those who are out of
compliance.”
He said the counties —
under the state’s Wetland
Protection Act — are
responsible for any enforcement
actions against improper
tiling.
But with so much of
southern Minnesota so thoroughly
tiled — much of it
before wetland protection
laws were enacted — there
are few cases of violations or
enforcement.

The Free Press / Sunday, December 4, 2011
FROM AMBER WAVES TO
MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
SEDIMENT: ‘We are looking at mud all day’
Continued from Page A1
But not long ago, scientists
found the answer —
“radiometric fingerprints.”
Shawn Schottler, senior
cientist at the Science
useum of Minnesota, said
he process allows
esearchers to collect sedient
samples downstream
nd identify whether it
ame from farm fields or
anks and ravines.
Schottler, however, plays
down any CSI comparison.
“After all, we are looking
at mud all day.”
There are several kinds of
radioactive isotopes that are
naturally occurring and fall
to earth each time it rains.
There are also radioactive
isotopes that fell to earth
because of above ground
nuclear bomb testing in the
1950s and early ’60s.
Tilled farm fields, that
are directly exposed to rain,
have more isotopes and the
tracers in them are different
than those buried deeper in
the soil in ravines, bluffs
and river banks.
So, when scientists took
deep core samples of dirt in
Lake Pepin — which is
being filled in with
Minnesota River sediment
— they could study dirt
that was deposited there
going back many decades.
And by looking at the
ratio of farm field versus
non-farm radioisotopes,
they could also tell where
the sediment originally
Submitted photo
Shawn Schottler, a scientist at the Science Museum of Minnesota, with
core samples of sediment pulled from the bottom of Lake Pepin on the
Mississippi River. Much of the sediment is coming from the Minnesota
River.
came from.
Schottler said the
process lets them quantify
farm field and non-farm
field sediment in Lake
Pepin, but so far they can’t
analyze how much of the
non-farm sediment came
from lower river banks,
upper bluffs or nearby
ravines.
“Work is continuing on
ways to separate those nonfield
sources.”
Farms, stores brighten stalled
New York City building lots
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A remnant of the Great
Recession is hiding behind a paint-splattered
wall in Chinatown, in an empty lot
where a building was supposed to rise
into the sky.
The plywood barely conceals the mess
behind it: a pile of cement blocks and tangled
metal and empty bottles of beer. It is,
in short, exactly the sort of place that
draws the ire of Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer.
“There’s a lot of bad
things that happen in
stalled construction sites,”
says Stringer, whose office
issued a report earlier this
year cataloguing the more
than 600 stalled sites that
are scattered throughout
New York City. “Especially
if everybody sort of ignores
the site and lets it grow in
a very unpleasing way.”
Instead of allowing
these lots to become eyesores,
some developers are
coming up with creative
ways to use them temporarily
until construction can begin.
Grow vegetables in milk crates? Sure.
Sell doughnuts out of a shipping container?
In New York City, where open space
is a precious commodity, just about anything
goes.
In a lot near the East River, an urban
farm sprouted last summer on the spot
where the construction of a life science
park is in limbo. At roughly 15,000 square
feet, it’s a patch of green in the shadow of
the tower next door.
“We thought, we have this bald site
here, this plot of land in the middle of
New York,” said Scarlet Shore, executive
director of corporate strategy for
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
“Why don’t we figure out how to make it
productive?”
The original design for the project
“We thought, we
have this bald site
here, this plot of
land in the middle
of New York. Why
don’t we figure out
how to make
it productive?”
SCARLET SHORE,
executive director of corporate
strategy for Alexandria Real
Estate Equities, Inc.
called for two towers that would house
office space for commercial life science
companies. Work began on both towers in
2007, and the East Tower was completed.
But after Lehman Brothers collapsed in
2008, Alexandria, the developer, decided
to halt construction on the West Tower.
Now the company is taking a wait-and-see
approach amid continued economic uncertainty.
Soon the place was a maze of milk
crates lined with landscaping fabric and
soil. Riverpark Farm, which
officially opened on Sept. 13,
isn’t just a bright spot for
neighborhood residents in
need of greenery. It also supplies
fresh produce for
Riverpark restaurant, which
is located next door in the
East Tower.
Zach Pickens, the farm
manager, likes to watch people
do a double-take when
they walk along the low
wooden wall that separates
the farm from the street.
“They’ll look in the first
window and they’ll be like,
‘Oh my gosh, there’s plants
growing in there,”’ he said.
The crops are being covered in plastic
as colder weather moves in, but the farm
will continue to grow vegetables like
spinach, carrots and beets.
The developer charges no rent for the
farm project. It’s unclear when construction
will begin on the West Tower, but when
that does happen, the goal is to transport
the moveable farm to a new location.
Developers say the beauty of these sites
lies in their easy portability. And it doesn’t
get much more portable than the shops
at downtown Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market,
which have been fashioned out of giant,
colorful shipping containers of the variety
carried on cargo ships. The market is situated
on a city-owned plot of land that will
eventually become a massive mixed-use
retail development.
A7
With candy and cash, al-Qaida flows into Africa
With almost no
esistance, terror
roup moves
nto one of the
oorest nations
n Earth
The Associated Press
SOKOLO, MALI — The
first time the members of al-
Qaida emerged from the forest,
they politely said hello.
Then the men carrying
automatic weapons asked
the frightened villagers if
they could please take water
from the well.
Before leaving, they rolled
down the windows of their
pickup truck and called over
the children to give them
chocolate.
That was 18 months ago,
and since then, the bearded
men in tunics like those
worn by Osama bin Laden
have returned for water
every week. Each time they
go to lengths to exchange
greetings, ask for permission
and act neighborly,
according to locals, in the
first intimate look at how al-
Qaida tries to win over a village.
Besides candy, the men
hand out cash. If a child is
born, they bring baby
clothes. If someone is ill,
they prescribe medicine.
When a boy was hospitalized,
they dropped off plates
of food and picked up the
tab.
With almost no resistance,
al-Qaida has implanted
itself in Africa’s soft tissue,
choosing as its host one of
the poorest nations on earth.
The terrorist group has create
a refuge in this remote
land through a strategy of
winning hearts and minds,
described in rare detail by
seven locals in regular contact
with the cell. The villagers
agreed to speak for
the first time to an
Associated Press team in the
“red zone,” deemed by most
embassies to be too dangerous
for foreigners to visit.
While al-Qaida’s central
command is in disarray and
its leaders on the run following
bin Laden’s death six
months ago, security
experts say, the group’s 5-
year-old branch in Africa is
flourishing. From bases like
the one in the forest just
north of here, al-Qaida in
the Islamic Maghreb, or
AQIM, is infiltrating local
communities, recruiting
fighters, running training
camps and planning suicide
attacks, according to diplomats
and government officials.
Even as the mother franchise
struggles financially,
its African offshoot has
raised an estimated $130
million in under a decade by
kidnapping at least 50
Westerners in neighboring
countries and holding them
in camps in Mali for ransom.
It has tripled in size from
100 combatants in 2006 to
at least 300 today, say security
experts. And its growing
footprint, once limited
to Algeria, now stretches
from one end of the Sahara
desert to the other, from
Mauritania in the west to
Mali in the east.
The group’s stated aim is
to become a player in global
jihad, and suspected collaborators
have been arrested
throughout Europe, including
in the Netherlands,
Spain, Italy, England and
France. In September, the
general responsible for U.S.
military operations in
Africa, Army Gen. Carter
Ham, said AQIM now also
poses a “significant threat”
to the United States.
The answer to why the
group has thrived can be
found in this speck of a
town, where homes are
made of mud mixed with
straw and families eke out a
living either in the fields of
rice to the south or in the
immense forest of short,
stout trees to its north.
It’s here, under a canopy
stretching over an area three
times larger than the city of
New York, that Sokolo’s
herders take their cattle.
They avoid overgrazing by
organizing themselves into
eight units linked to each of
the eight wells, labeled N1
through N8, along the 50-
mile-long perimeter of the
Wagadou forest. They pay
$5 per year per head of cattle,
and $3 per head of
Above: A nomad from the Tuareg
tribe of the Sahara Desert brings
his herd for vaccination to a team
of U.S. Special Forces in the
Sahara Desert handing out aid
near the town of Gao in
northeastern Mali.
Left: A boy in Sokolo, Mali, rides a
donkey cart. A majority of
Sokolo’s population make their
living either in the fields of rice to
its south or in the forest to its
north, where they take their
herds to graze.
The Associated Press
sheep, for the right to water
their animals.
When the al-Qaida fighters
showed up about 1 1/2
years ago with four to five
jerrycans and asked for
water, they signaled that
they did not intend to plunder
resources. They stood
out in their tunics stopping
a little below the knees,
small turbans and beards, a
foreign style of dress associated
with the Gulf states and
bin Laden.
“From the moment you
lay eyes on them, you know
that they’re not Malian,”
said 45-year-old herder
Amadou Maiga.
They started to come
every four or five days in
Land Cruisers, with
Kalashnikovs slung over
their shoulders. At first they
stayed for no more than 15
to 20 minutes, said the villagers,
including herders, a
hunter and employees of the
Malian Ministry of
Husbandry who travel to
the area to vaccinate animals
and repair broken
pumps. If on Monday they
took water from one well,
on Wednesday they would
go to another, always varying
their path.
Fousseyni Diakite, 51, a
pump technician who travels
twice a month to the forest
to check the generators
used to run the wells, first
ran into the cell in May
2010, when he saw four
men in Arab dress inside a
Toyota Hilux truck, all with
AK-47s at their feet.
He said the men come
with medical supplies and try
to find out if anyone is sick.
“There is one who is tall
with a big chest — he’s
Arab, possibly Algerian.
He’s known for having an
ambulatory pharmacy. He
goes from place to place giving
treatment for free,”
Diakite said.
They venture into the
camps where the herders
sleep at dusk and hand out
cash to villagers who join
them for prayers, he said —
bills of 10,000 West African
francs (about $20), equal to
nearly half the average
monthly salary in Mali.
Most of the herders sleep
in lean-to’s in camps at the
forest’s edge. Because these
are temporary settlements,
they do not have mosques,
unlike most villages in this
nation twice the size of
France that is 90 percent
Muslim.
In Boulker, a hamlet near
the forest, the fighters left
100,000 francs (around
$200), instructing locals to
buy supplies and build an
adobe mosque, Diakite said.
Along with its poverty,
Mali has an enormous geography
and a weak central
government — not unlike
Afghanistan, where bin
Laden first used the charm
offensive to secure the loyalty
of the local people, said
Noman Benotman, a former
jihadist with links to al-
Qaida, now an analyst at the
London-based Quilliam
Foundation.

“We like to say it’s a
bright beacon that
shines a spotlight on
a very serious issue.”
IN THE VALLEY, B1
SERVING MANKATO AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MINNESOTA
MONDAY
75 ¢
December 5, 2011
IN THE VALLEY, B1
FIRST BIG SNOW A
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Energy
task force
points out
potential
Group scouting
sites for small
wind turbines
By Brian Ojanpa
bojanpa@mankatofreepress.com
MANKATO — A Mankatoarea
renewable energy advocacy
group is looking to harness
the wind, albeit on a
modest scale.
The Region Nine
Renewable Energy Task
Force is courting prospective
small developers for a wind
turbine bulk-buy project that
would place windmills on
farms and other rural properties
in south-central and
southwest Minnesota.
“We’re not out to make
money; we’re just here to
provide the technical assistance,”
said Jon Hammel,
economic development specialist
for Region Nine
Development Commission.
“What we’re trying to
show is that renewable energy
makes sense for our
region because we’re completely
dependent on others
for our energy resources.”
The citizen task force has
been scouting potential area
sites to accommodate small
turbines of under 40 kilowatts
that could provide
much or all of an owner’s
energy needs.
Task force members said
a small-scale effort is more
viable than large wind energy
projects that employ
mammoth turbines of 1.5
megawatts and above, an
often problematic scenario
due to prevailing local ordinances
and public NIMBY
Please see ENERGY, Page A8
mankatofreepress.com
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
T
he
rapidly eroding banks and muddy river water
are the obvious signs of problems for those
along the Minnesota River.
But it’s near Red Wing that the Minnesota’s
problems end up.
From
amber waves
to
muddy
waters
The environmental threat
of the Minnesota River
Part 21 of a 5
NEWS TIP HOTLINE NO. 344-6385
IN NATION & WORLD, A3
PUTIN’S PARTY
LOSING FAVOR
CNHI
Newspaper
“About five years ago the
neighborhood people at the
mouth of Lake Pepin
noticed places you used to be
able to jet ski across or take
your boat across to Wisconsin —
you can’t get there anymore,”
said lake resident Mike McKay.
The northern one-third of
Lake Pepin is filling in with the
Minnesota River’s sediment so
quickly that it will disappear by
the end of the century. If nothing changes, the entire
lake will disappear within 300 years. Experts say the
lake is filling with sediment at 10 times the natural
rate that occurred before white settlement.
Besides making the lake shallower, the sediment is
reducing the light penetrating the water from Fort
Snelling to Lake Pepin, choking off growth of aquatic
plants.
of the Year
16 pages Vol. 125, No. 246
IN SPORTS, B6
TEBOW TROUBLE
FOR VIKINGS
Trouble at the mouth of
LAKE PEPIN
Lake takes in what Minnesota River sends it
Please see LAKE PEPIN, Page A2
Pat Christman
Scenic Lake Pepin, on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, is popular with boaters. Parts of the lake are filling in with sediment flowing out
of the Minnesota River.
Submitted photo
Mike McKay, a Lake Pepin resident and head of the Lake Pepin
Legacy Alliance, believes more needs to be done to slow the water
flow and erosion on the Minnesota River, which he believes is being
driven in large part by farm drainage.
River podcast on the Web
To hear a podcast with Editor Joe Spear and Staff
Writer Tim Krohn discussing this series, go to
www.mankatofreepress.com and type “river podcast”
into the search bar at the top of the page.
Postal cuts
to slow
first-class
delivery
Reductions
would eliminate
next-day mail
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Facing
bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal
Service is pushing ahead
with unprecedented cuts to
first-class mail next spring
that will slow delivery and,
for the first time in 40
years, eliminate the chance
for stamped letters to arrive
the next day.
The estimated $3 billion
in reductions, to be
announced in broader detail
today, are part of a wideranging
effort by the cashstrapped
Postal Service to
quickly trim costs, seeing
no immediate help from
Congress.
The changes would provide
short-term relief, but
ultimately could prove counterproductive,
pushing more
of America’s business onto
the Internet. They could
slow everything from check
payments to Netflix’s DVDsby-mail,
add costs to mailorder
prescription drugs,
and threaten the existence
of newspapers and time-sensitive
magazines delivered
by postal carrier to far-flung
suburban and rural communities.
That birthday card
mailed first-class to Mom
also could arrive a day or
two late, if people don’t plan
ahead.
“It’s a potentially major
change, but I don’t think
consumers are focused on it
and it won’t register until
the service goes away,” said
Jim Corridore, analyst with
Please see PROBLEMS, Page A8
Shock waves from commodities trading firm collapse felt on farms
Many of farmers who traded with MF Global used
utures markets to reduce risks of volatile prices
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The
shock waves from the collapse
of commodities trading
firm MF Global Inc. are
hitting hard across rural
America, where farmers,
ranchers and agricultural
business owners are nervously
waiting to learn how
much money they’ve lost.
Many of the farmers who
traded with MF Global,
which is being investigated
over what federal regulators
say is an estimated $1.2 billion
that may be missing
from customer accounts,
used the futures markets to
reduce the risks of volatile
prices. Locking in prices
through the futures market
— something farmers have
been doing for a century —
allows them to plan ahead
while knowing what their
costs will be.
Mike Mouw, co-owner of
Mouw’s Feed and Grain Inc.
in the southwestern
Minnesota town of Leota,
said his business relies on
the futures markets both
when it buys grain from
farmers and when it sells
feed to hog producers. That
makes it possible to for the
company to plan two or
three years ahead. Now,
though, Mouw estimates
he’s out about $250,000.
“I’m praying that I get it
back,” he said.
Farmers, ranchers and
rural businesses such as
grain elevators and feed
mills were among the hardest
hit when they were cut
off from the cash in their
hedging accounts at MF
Global, which sought bankruptcy
protection in
October after making a disastrous
bet on European
government debt. The number
of people harmed and
the extent of their losses
isn’t clear yet.
“This thing should not be
taken lightly by anybody,”
Mouw said. “This has a far
greater trickle-down than
people realize.”
Federal regulators are
investigating whether MF
Global, as its financial condition
worsened, tapped
client funds that were supposed
to be kept safe in
strictly segregated accounts.
They’re also trying to determine
what became of the
money — it’s not clear if
the cash is parked somewhere
or if it’s gone.
Violating the rules for segregated
accounts can lead to
civil and criminal penalties.
The chairmen of the
Commodity Futures Trading
Commission and the
Please see MF GLOBAL, Page A2
UPCOMING
TOMORROW IN THE FREE PRESS
Sweet & savory
Recipes for the holiday season.
Copyright 2011, The Free Press
Mankato, Minnesota
PAGEFINDER
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5
Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5
Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B5
Nation-World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6-B8
TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3
WEATHER, PAGE A8
Night chill
Partly sunny. High
around 22. Low tonight around 7.
See news? Have an idea? Call us
Did you witness an accident, fire, or crime?
Would you like us to investigate government
malfeasance?
Do you know
Free Press News
of a local event
other residents
would like to
read about?
If you see news happening in and around the
Mankato area or just have a story idea, call The
Free Press news tip line at 344-6385. It’s
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It’s not necessary to leave your name and
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News tip line: 344-6385
344-6385
Assisted Living Community

FROM AMBER WAVES TO MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
A2 The Free Press / Monday, December 5, 2011
LAKE PEPIN: Many find their livelihoods are based on the lake
Continued from Page A1
McKay, who’s lived on the
lake for 20 years, said the
alarming changes to Lake
Pepin prompted area residents,
business leaders and
environmentalists to form
the Lake Pepin Legacy
Alliance.
McKay, who manages the
St. James Hotel, which is
owned by the family that
owns Red Wing Shoes, does
not identify himself as an
environmentalist.
“We’re not your typical
environmental group. We’ve
tried to stay away from that
brand. We want to be more
inclusive.
“If you own a business on
the lake, you’re involved. If
you’re involved in water
issues for cities or counties,
you’re involved. If you’re a
sail boat owner, you’re
involved,” McKay said of the
alliance. “We have a lot of
environmentalists and conservationists
and all the people
who realize their livelihood
is based on the lake.”
McKay pored through
research on the Minnesota
River and upper Mississippi
and was amazed at the large
scope of scientific research
that has been done.
He’s also amazed so little
has been accomplished when
the research is clear on most
of the causes.
“Bank erosion (on the
Minnesota) is the big cause,
but it’s a direct result of the
energy of water coming
down so fast.” Water, he
said, that is coming from
intensely farmed — and artificially
drained — watersheds.
Upcoming: Day 3: Tuesday, Dec. 6
Solutions stymied by money shortages, politics
The state regulations are clear: If you have land in agricultural use along a stream,
river or lake, you need to have at least a 50-foot grass buffer strip along the river
bank or edge of the lake to reduce erosion, runoff and pollution. But enforcement of
the rule has been nearly nonexistent. Many counties say they don’t have the staff or
resources to enforce the rules, and opposition from landowners can make it an issue
elected county commissioners would rather avoid.
Some make efforts to follow the law
When Julee Streit got the letter and aerial photo from Blue Earth County showing
a small portion of her property out of compliance with buffer-strip rules, she admits
to a bit of anxiety. But she sought advice and found local officials easy to work with.
She’s one of the few landowners complying with new buffer strip rules.
Counties can enforce laws, but many don’t
When it comes to enforcing the law requiring a 50-foot buffer along streams, rivers
and lakes, it falls largely to counties to do the policing. Virtually none have, but some
are starting to.
“The only good thing is
that virtually all the fields
are tiled, so there won’t be
more (tiling).” McKay hopes
technology will help find
ways to retain and slow the
flow of water off the farm
landscape.
But McKay said state
and particularly county regulators
need to enforce existing
regulations, such as
requirements for a 50-foot
buffer strip along creeks and
streams.
“There are rules and
statutes that require a 50-
foot setback, but they’re
often ignored. If those were
consistently followed, that
would affect nearly one-third
of the sediment.”
McKay said the alliance
doesn’t want a hostile relationship
with farmers, but
says the responsibility of
farm drainage in the sediment
problem must be
acknowledged and addressed
— even if there are not
quick, sweeping changes.
“We need to find the common
ground first and have
successes and then build on
that.”
CORRECTIONS
Questions or concerns
about Free Press news
coverage can be directed
to Managing Editor
Joe Spear at 344-6382.
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LON YOUNGERBERG
MF GLOBAL: Bad bet being felt in small towns across America
Continued from Page A1
Securities and Exchange
Commission said Thursday
that all those affected should
get back at least two-thirds
of their money.
Dean Tofteland, who raises
corn, soybeans and pigs
near Luverne in southwestern
Minnesota, has about
$200,000 tied up with MF
Global, said Sen. Amy
Klobuchar at a Senate
Agriculture Committee
hearing. She said his situation
shows how the firm’s
$6.3 billion bad bet on
European bonds is being felt
in small towns across
America.
Klobuchar, a Minnesota
Democrat, said afterward
that recovering two-thirds of
the funds “clearly isn’t good
enough” for farmers threatened
with deep losses to
their life savings.
Tofteland said in an interview
that he never imagined
money that belongs to him
would just disappear.
“It’s like having your
house burn down without
insurance,” Tofteland said.
Grain farmer and rancher
Marty Klinker of Fairfield,
Mont., has lost about
$336,000, said Sen. Max
Baucus, D-Montana. Baucus
said Klinker got about 60
percent of his money at MF
Global back, but his
prospects for the rest seem
pretty grim.
He told CFTC Chairman
Gary Gensler that Klinker
trusted the system, and it
let him down.
“You’re absolutely right,
the system has to work for
the farmers and ranchers
and the energy companies
and all of the people that
need to lock in a price, and
segregation is at the
absolute core of this system
that’s been existent for
decades,” Gensler said.
But the chairman did not
‘Twilight’ bright but Hollywood snoozes
NOTICE OF FARM SALE
WASECA COUNTY
ST MARY TOWNSHIP
JANET ROEGLIN ESTATE
LEGAL DESCRIPTION:
LOS ANGELES — The latest
“Twilight” movie cast
the longest shadow with
$16.9 million for a thirdstraight
No. 1 finish during
one of the year’s slowest
weekends at the box office.
Business was dismal,
with box-office tracker
Hollywood.com estimating
Sunday that domestic revenues
totaled just $82 million.
Once studios release
final numbers today, this
past weekend could come in
as the worst of the year if
revenues finish even lower.
The first weekend of
December often presents a
lull in between Thanksgiving
releases and the onslaught of
year-end blockbusters that
arrive a bit later.
— The Associated Press
SW 1/4 SE 1/4; W ½ SE 1/4 SE 1/4 and a parcel in the NW 1/4
SW 1/4 of Section 9, Township 107 North, Range 23 West less
approximately 4 acre building site. Property will be surveyed
prior to sale to determine exact acreage of building site.
Farmland is estimated to be 84 acres.
TERMS:
1. Potential Buyers shall submit a sealed bid accompanied
by a certified check in the amount of $10,000.00. The check shall
be made payable to Byron Law Office, PLLC Trust Account
and submitted to Molly Byron, Attorney at Law, of Byron Law
Office, PLLC, 122 North State Street, Waseca, MN 56093. The
bid and checks shall be received by 9:30 a.m. on December 12,
2011. Checks for unsuccessful bidders will be returned at the
conclusion of the sale.
2. The bids shall be opened at the Waseca Courthouse East
Annex meeting room, located at 300 North State Street, Waseca,
MN, 56093, at 10:00 a.m. on December 12, 2011. All persons
submitting a written bid will be allowed to raise their bids, in
writing, after the bids have been opened.
3. The successful bidder will be required to execute a
purchase agreement and pay 10% of the purchase price as earnest
money upon completion of the bidding and the initial check
received will be applied to earnest money. The entire remaining
balance of the purchase price, without interest, will be due on or
before January 15, 2012, at which time title will be conveyed by a
Personal Representative’s Deed.
4. Real estate taxes and special assessments due and
payable in 2011 and thereafter shall be paid by the Buyer.
5. This property is being sold in an “AS IS” condition and
the sellers make no representations as to its acreage, tiling, or
condition.
6. An abstract of title indicating marketable title in Sellers
shall be furnished. Title shall be transferred by Warranty Deed.
Possession shall be given to the successful bidder upon receipt of
payment in full.
7. The owners specifically reserve the right to reject
any and all bids and to waive irregularities in the bidding process.
Any verbal announcement made the day of sale takes precedence
over print.
Information concerning this land may be obtained from Molly
Byron of Byron Law Office, PLLC, 122 North State Street,
Waseca, MN, 56093, Phone: 507-835-3355.
venture a guess about when,
if, or how much of Klinker’s
remaining money — or anyone
else’s — might be
returned.
Agricultural prices frequently
fluctuate due to
ever-changing supply and
demand, which are driven
by many factors ranging
from the weather to exports.
Trading on the futures markets
helps farmers shield
themselves from the risks of
prices for their products
falling and costs for things
such as feed increasing.
Hog producers who rode
out tough years in 2008 and
2009 came to rely heavily on
risk management tools and
were starting to lock in
some pretty good profits
before MF Global collapsed,
said Mark Greenwood, a
senior vice president and
swine expert at AgStar
Financial Services, which
serves farmers mainly in
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Greenwood estimates that
about half of the hog producers
his company serves
have been affected, with
combined losses probably
more than $40 million. The
300 to 400 clients have individual
losses of $50,000 to
over $1 million, he said.
They’re wondering if they
can trust the futures trading
system again — whether
2 Rooms
& A Hall
$79 95
(REG. $100) up to 400 sq. ft.
or WHOLE HOUSE $129.95
(REG. $200) up to 800 sq. ft.
Out of town mileage charge
Exp. 12/18/11
there are sufficient guarantees
to ensure that another
MF Global doesn’t happen,
Greenwood said.
“They’re frustrated,
angry,” Greenwood said. “I
think the word is disgusted.
We’re trying to do everything
we can to manage a
very volatile industry. This
was one risk we never
thought we’d see.”
Great Christmas Gifts
Give a Gift
Certificate
Phil Sommers
387-6816 or 345-1055

SERVING MANKATO AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MINNESOTA
TUESDAY
75 ¢
“If we think it was
hard Sunday, it could
be much, much worse.”
IN SPORTS, D1
December 6, 2011
www.mankatofreepress.com
IN SPORTS, D1
WHERE THERE’S A
WILLS THERE’S A WAY
CNHI
Newspaper
NEWS TIP HOTLINE NO. 344-6385
IN THE VALLEY, B1
ACCUSER’S STORY
TO BE REVIEWED
of the Year
24 pages Volume 125, No. 247
IN NATION & WORLD, A3
POSTAL
PROBLEMS
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
The state regulations
are clear: If
you have land in
agricultural use
along a stream, river or
lake, you need to have at
least a 50-foot grass buffer
strip along the river bank or
edge of the lake to reduce
erosion, runoff and pollution.
But enforcement of the rule
has been nearly nonexistent. Many counties say they
simply don’t have the staff or resources to enforce the
rules and opposition from landowners can make it an
issue elected county commissioners would rather avoid.
Still, some larger counties are taking action, helped
by new technology that makes it easier to find those
not following the rules.
“There is a lot of shoreline in the county. A lot of it’s
not accessible. It’s on private land and there aren’t
roads to it,” said Julie Conrad, Blue Earth County’s
land use and natural resources planner.
The county, in conjunction with the local Soil and
Water Conservation District, turned to GIS mapping
— including new high-quality aerial photos of the
entire county — to first locate all shorelines and then
see who was out of compliance.
The county identified 368 miles of rivers and
streams, 186 miles of unnamed streams and 43 lakes.
There also are channelized streams where landowners
dug out shallow streams so they would carry more
drainage water.
Most counties don’t know how many channelized
streams on private land exist as most were done many
decades ago prior to permitting requirements and oversight.
The good news, Conrad said, is that compliance is
relatively high with an estimated 94 percent of agricultural
shoreline protected by a buffer. That’s a far higher
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
Many county rivers, streams and lakes without
BUFFER ZONE
Fifty-foot rule
not usually enforced
AMBOY — When Julee
Streit got the letter and
aerial photo from Blue
Earth County showing a
small portion of her property
out of compliance with
buffer-strip rules, she
admits to a bit of anxiety.
“I was surprised. I’d
never heard of the law.”
She contacted the Blue
Earth County Soil and
Water Conservation
District, whose staff came
out, explained the rules
and marked off two pieces
of land — totaling 0.16
acres — that needed to be
taken out of crop production
and planted into grass.
“The Soil and Water
people were very easy to
work with. They walked
From
amber waves
to
muddy
waters
The environmental threat
of the Minnesota River
Part 13 of of a 5
Landowner made changes to comply with law
Please see LANDOWNER, Page A7
John Cross
While a 50-foot buffer between the river’s edge and farm fields is required, some land is farmed
Please see BUFFER, Page A7 closer to the river as can be seen in this photo upriver from New Ulm.
This is the aerial image Julee Streit received this summer showing a small part of her
property was being farmed too close to the edge of Rice Creek. Blue Earth County is
using the advanced technology to identify land not in compliance and notifying
landowners. Streit is planting a buffer strip of grass along the creek.
Counties responsible
for policing buffer law
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
When it comes to enforcing the
law requiring a 50-foot buffer along
streams, rivers and lakes, it falls
largely to counties to do the policing.
Virtually none have, but some are
starting to.
The reasons for inaction, say
county officials, have been a lack of
staff and expertise, no easy way to
find offenders and no real pressure
to crack down.
Some counties say they still lack
the manpower, but there is growing
pressure to enforce the rules, and
new technology — including GIS
mapping and aerial photography —
makes it easier to locate those out of
compliance.
“We haven’t pushed anything
Please see COUNTIES, Page A7
Taxes on
rise in
North
Mankato
By Mark Fischenich
mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com
NORTH MANKATO —
The 2012 budget in North
Mankato will essentially be
a reversal of the current one
— general
fund spending
will be
frozen and
taxes will be
going up.
A handful
Page B1
Mankato
discusses
trims.
of citizens offered opinions
at Monday’s public budget
hearing on the city’s taxing
and spending plans, saying
that taxpayers are suffering
and asking the council to
look to be more efficient.
The budget, with its 7.02
percent increase in property
taxes and its nearly 1 percent
reduction in the general
fund, was presented in
detail Monday and is
expected to be unchanged
when it’s approved on Dec.
19.
Kim Spears thanked the
Please see RISING, Page A4
Mankato
man linked
to Gaylord,
St. Peter
shootings
By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com
MANKATO — Charges
filed in Sibley County
Monday tie a 23-year-old
Mankato man to what investigators
are describing as
gang-related shootings in
Gaylord and St. Peter.
Michael Lamont Smith
was arrested in Mankato at
about 2 a.m. Friday. Gaylord
police officers were about to
search his house with assistance
from Mankato police
and regional drug task force
investigators.
Shotgun slugs were fired
into a mobile home in St.
Peter’s Green Valley Trailer
Court at about 1:15 a.m.
Nov. 28. Three days later, at
Please see SHOOTINGS, Page A8
UPCOMING
TOMORROW IN THE FREE PRESS
Bugged out
Not a creature is stirring. Well,
maybe just a few.
Copyright 2011, The Free Press
Mankato, Minnesota
PAGEFINDER
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5
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Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D4
TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6
WEATHER, PAGE B4
Brisk
Mostly sunny and
cold. High 20. Low 9.
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phone number, but it does help us with our stories.
News tip line: 344-6385

The Free Press / Tuesday, December 6, 2011
FROM AMBER WAVES TO MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
A7
BUFFER: About 450 landowners identified as needing strip
Continued from Page A1
COUNTIES: Tools are getting
better to determine compliance
Continued from Page A1
yet,” said Bruce Johnson,
Watonwan County’s environmental
services director.
“We did get the aerial
information recently, so we
could analyze it. But we
have a drastic absence of
technical capacity,” noting
that because of job vacancies,
there are only a couple
of people working on
environmental and water
issues.
“With small counties
like ours, it’s just not
easy.”
Michele Stindtman, of
Faribault County planning
and zoning, said it’s frustrating
that enforcement of
the law has been mostly
ignored.
“It’s somewhat frustrating
when even the DNR
doesn’t enforce it.”
She said the county is
just beginning to develop
plans and launch education
programs for
landowners about buffer
and drainage regulations.
“It’s been in state
statute a long time.
Landowners should know.
Hopefully the people who
are farming too close will
get the message that they
need to do this or it will
be done through enforcement.”
Mark Leiferman, planning
and zoning administrator
in Waseca County,
said they just kicked off a
three-year plan to deal
with buffer and drainage
regulation issues. This
past year they held forums
to educate farmers on the
rules. Beginning next year,
anytime any landowner
seeks a county permit —
for anything from a septic
system to a building permit
— the county will use
the opportunity to check if
the property owner is out
of compliance with buffer
rules and ask them to comply.
Beginning in 2013, the
county will require they
comply with buffer rules
before they get a permit
for any other projects.
“It’s a process we used
in the past for septic compliance
and it worked
well,” Leiferman said.
He said prior to the
past couple of years, it was
all but impossible for the
county to identify those
out of compliance across
the county.
“A couple of years ago,
we didn’t even have GIS
data. The tools are getting
a lot better.”
Kathy Brockway of Le
Sueur County said they so
far haven’t made any plan
regarding buffers.
“We haven’t really discussed
that at all.”
Mandy Landkamer,
director of Nicollet County
Environmental Services,
said there’s been some discussion
about buffer
strips, but no plans are in
place to begin identifying
landowners out of compliance.
She said they’ve focused
on managing feedlots in
the county to prevent
manure that is injected in
or spread on farm fields
from running off into
waterways.
“The buffers are good,
but through our feedlot
program we try to catch
things before (manure)
gets (near waterways).”
rate of compliance than a
few other counties that have
made an effort to track
buffer strips.
Part of the reason for better
compliance is the steep
ravines that lead up to many
farm fields in this area.
“Our streams are so heavily
wooded and deeply
incised, so getting farm
equipment close to the tops
of those river banks is dangerous
so most farmers stay
away,” Conrad said.
The land not in compliance
in the county is generally
where the stream banks
aren’t so steep, she said.
About 450 property owners
have been identified as
needing to establish a buffer
strip with most of the needed
buffer areas being less
than an acre in size. In
total, about 400 acres of
land need to be seeded into
grass buffer strips.
Once identified by the
county as being out of compliance,
the SWCD staff
takes over and contacts
landowners. The county,
not the SWCD, is responsible
for enforcement, said
Jerad Bach, manager of the
Blue Earth County SWCD.
“We don’t mandate anything;
it’s all voluntary,”
Bach said. “We have the
history of working with
landowners on cost-share
programs for soil erosion,
so that’s where we come
in.”
It will eventually be up
to the County Board of
Commissioners to enforce
Continued from Page A1
me through it. I never felt
threatened about it,” said
Streit, who with her husband
owns an 80-acre parcel
near the border of southern
Blue Earth County. The
land under till is rented by a
neighboring farmer.
“They said (the law’s)
been around a long time,
but I never heard of it.
They’re just starting to
enforce it.”
The law requires a 50-
foot buffer strip along all
bodies of waters, streams
and rivers. Blue Earth
County, using aerial
imagery to identify land
out of compliance, is one
of just a few counties
beginning to pursue compliance.
(See related
story.)
Upcoming: Day 4: Wednesday, Dec. 7
Farmers in the crosshairs
Feeling increasingly in the crosshairs for fouling the rivers, farm groups have
formed a coalition to tell their story. Warren Formo, executive director of the
Minnesota Agricultural Water Resources Coalition, says data linking drainage to
much of the sediment problem are based on relatively new science. And he says there
may never be enough proof to pinpoint ag drainage as the primary culprit.
Commissioner has a stake in conservation
Blue Earth County Commissioner Will Purvis knows firsthand about the erosive
power of the river. He lives on the farm site southwest of Vernon Center that has been
in his family since 1913. He has taken a leading role on the County Board in waterrelated
issues, and the county is one of a handful in the state that is more aggressively
identifying land along streams and rivers that need to install required buffer strips.
the buffer strip rules on
any landowners who don’t
come into compliance.
Bach said they’ve so far
sent letters to 76 non-compliant
landowners and have
heard back from 26. About
half of those said they plan
to either seed the buffers in
at their own cost or sign up
Streit’s little piece of
land needing to be put into
a buffer runs along Rice
Creek, which comes out of
a lake in Faribault County
and eventually empties
into the Maple River in
Blue Earth County.
She is checking to see if
the land can be enrolled in
the Conservation Reserve
Program, but in the meantime
plans to simply seed
for the Conservation
Reserve Program, which
subsidizes landowners for
protecting sensitive land.
“We’re not trying to go
out there and say, ‘You’re a
bad person, you’re out of
compliance,’” Bach said.
“We just want to inform
them and work with them.”
it in with a grass mixture
suggested by the SWCD.
She’s also talked to her
renter, who will now be
getting a little less land to
farm. “He’s a real good
renter, but if he wants to
So far, only five counties
in the state have taken
active steps to enforce the
state-mandated buffer
rules. Dodge, Grant and
Olmsted counties have
already completed enforcement
while Blue Earth and
Winona counties are in the
process.
LANDOWNER: ‘You can’t tiptoe’ around the law
River podcast
on the web
To hear a podcast with Editor
Joe Spear and Staff Writer
Tim Krohn discussing this
series, go to
www.mankatofreepress.com
and type “river podcast” into
the search bar at the top of
the page.
redo the rent contract, he
can.”
Streit is philosophical
about finding herself
errant of the rules.
“The law’s the law. You
can’t tiptoe around it.”

SERVING MANKATO AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MINNESOTA
WEDNESDAY
75 ¢
“We are greater together
when everyone engages in
fair play, everyone gets a
fair shot, everyone does
their fair share.”
IN NATION & WORLD, A3
Dec. 7, 2011
IN SPORTS, D1
EAST WINS
EASILY
www.mankatofreepress.com
IN THE VALLEY, B1
BE WARY OF
CYBERSCAMMERS
CNHI
Newspaper
NEWS TIP HOTLINE NO. 344-6385
of the Year
Farmers groups say they’re unfairly targeted with river
University of
Minnesota soil
scientist Satish
Gupta (standing)
points to erosion
along the Le
Sueur River
south of
Mankato during
a tour he led last
summer. Gupta
said his
research
suggests much
of the increased
ravine and bank
erosion is
caused by more
precipitation.
Pat Christman
MUDSLINGING
Science is not settled, says farmer advocate
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
From
amber waves
Feeling increasingly in the
crosshairs for fouling the
to
rivers, farm groups have
formed a coalition to tell their
story.
“All of us who live in the
Minnesota River Valley have a
stake in this,” said Warren
Formo, executive director of
the Minnesota Agricultural
Water Resources Coalition.
The group was formed in
2008 by all of the state’s major farm-industry
groups.
Formo argues that data linking drainage
to much of the sediment problem are based
on relatively new science. And he says there
muddy
waters
The environmental threat
of the Minnesota River
Part 1 4 of of a 5
Glacier carved out
deep river valley
12,000 years ago
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
You can blame Warren
or a lot of the sediment
ashing into the
innesota River today.
River Warren that is.
The beautiful
innesota River Valley
s deep and wide — but
ecause it was carved so
eep, the streambanks,
avines and bluffs are
rone to sloughing into
he river when water
omes pouring in.
The deeply cut valley
as the work of what is
known as the prehistoric
River
Warren.
Creation of the
valley started about
12,000 years ago as
the last glaciers in
this area melted
and created the
massive Lake
Agassiz that covered
parts of the
Dakotas and
northern
Minnesota, up
through central Canada
to Hudson Bay. The lake
— 400 feet deep in
places — was bigger
may never be enough proof to
pinpoint ag drainage as the
primary culprit.
“The (river basin) system
is continuing to change, so
will we ever know? The need
to do research on the system
will never stop because the
changes will never stop,”
Formo said.
“Farming is a part of it, I’m
not saying we shouldn’t look
at agriculture. But we’ve
changed the landscape with
cities, roads and bridges. But
it is all going toward one issue (agriculture).”
Formo said the public is not up to speed
The Minnesota River basin
was carved out when Lake
Agassiz drained beginning
12,000 years ago.
Please see FARMERS, Page A5
than all the present
Great Lakes combined.
That big lake drained
in various directions
over time, but geologists
Warren Formo
is executive
director of the
Minnesota
Agricultural
Water
Resources
Coalition.
say something cataclysmic
happened about
11,000 years ago. Lake
Please see VALLEY, Page A6
Blue Earth Co.
commissioner
Purvis taking
a leading role
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
VERNON CENTER — Blue
Earth County Commissioner
Will Purvis knows firsthand
about the erosive power of the
river.
He lives along the Blue
Earth River on the farm site
southwest of Vernon Center
that has been in his family
since 1913.
“We have a 1938 photo of
the river channel and compared
it to 2009. The river has
moved onto our property 350
feet in that time,” Purvis said.
The land along the river was
put in the Conservation
Reserve Program and now is
covered with grass and trees.
“We’ve slowed (the erosion)
but haven’t eliminated it.”
Purvis has taken a leading
role on the County Board in
water-related issues, and the
county is one of a handful in
the state that is more aggressively
identifying land along
streams and rivers that need to
install required buffer strips.
“We have 94 percent compliance,
which isn’t bad, but 100
percent is what we’re shooting
for. Most people are very
receptive when they’re notified
they’re out of compliance.”
Purvis and Commissioner
20 pages Volume 125, No. 248
IN NATION & WORLD, A3
PEARL HARBOR
SURVIVORS RETURN
Please see PURVIS, Page A6
School
calendar
options
approved
By Tanner Kent
tkent@mankatofreepress.com
MANKATO — The Mankato
Area School Board approved a
series of options for the 2012-
13 and 2013-14 school calendar’s
during Tuesday’s meeting.
In the coming days, the calendar
options will be posted on
the district’s website —
www.isd77.org — and public
feedback will be welcomed. The
school board will hold a public
hearing on the options during
its Dec. 19 meeting and will
take final action during its Jan.
3 meeting.
School calendars are subject
to a number of legal and contractual
requirements. Cindy
Amoroso, the district’s curriculum
director, said there is little
flexibility in the calendar outside
of the “end dates and a few
days in between.”
Please see SCHOOLS, Page A2
Minneapolis
settles on
Metrodome
for stadium
The Associated Press
ST. PAUL — Minneapolis city
leaders on Tuesday put their
weight behind a proposal to
rebuild a new Vikings stadium
at the current site of the
Metrodome, saying it would be
$215 million cheaper than the
team’s preferred plan to build a
$1.1 billion stadium in the suburbs.
The pitch by Mayor R.T.
Rybak came at a hearing of two
state Senate panels focused on
funding possibilities for a state
share of building the stadium.
The hearing also touched on
proposals to expand gambling
as a state funding source,
including a new proposal from
northwestern Minnesota’s
White Earth Tribal Nation to
build a Twin Cities-area casino
and put some of its proceeds
into the stadium pot.
It’s the second such hearing
in a week on the subject of a
Vikings stadium, as the team
Please see STADIUM, Page A6
UPCOMING
TOMORROW IN THE FREE PRESS
Behind the dancers
Mankato Ballet adds new
backdrops for ‘The Nutcracker.’
Copyright 2011, The Free Press
Mankato, Minnesota
PAGEFINDER
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3
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Nation-World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3
TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
WEATHER, PAGE B4
Twenties
Times of clouds and
sun. High 26. Low 9.
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FROM AMBER WAVES TO MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
The Free Press / Wednesday, December 7, 2011
A5
FARMERS: One study says precipitation key erosion contributor
Continued from Page A1
on changes that have been
made in modern agriculture.
“We have such different
starting points on the conversation,
a different understanding
of what’s ag today.
We need to bring that out
so we’re not arguing about
what happened 40 years
ago.”
He said the most dramatic
change has been in using
more conservation tillage.
“Tillage is much less than
20 or 30 years ago. We’ve
increased the water-holding
capacity of the soil.”
Farm groups argue that
getting water off the landscape
through tile drainage
allows farm fields to absorb
more water after rains — in
essence reducing the flow
of water into rivers and limiting
erosion.
Farm advocates also
point to a study done by
University of Minnesota
soil scientists Satish Gupta.
The report attributes much
of the streambank erosion
to increased precipitation,
changes made to the river
channel such as channelizing
parts of it, as well as
Upcoming: Day 5: Thursday
Protective buffers are rare, but coming
Few argue there are benefits to grass buffer strips alongside open drainage ditches. They filter out fertilizer and
chemicals and can slow erosion and sediment getting into waterways. But across the countryside there are very few
of the recommended 16 1/2-foot strips of grass next to ditches.That will begin to change as more counties begin
taking an action that will trigger language in a state law requiring buffers.
Carp defense not happening on Minnesota
Add giant flying carp to the list of potential dangers to the Minnesota River. Intense efforts are under way to
keep the invasive Asian carp out of Minnesota waters. The fish, which can reach monster size, are moving up the
Mississippi. Officials, with a mandate by the Legislature, are devising plans to halt or at least slow their migration.
But some say the plans largely ignore keeping the carp out of the Minnesota River.
Alliances may help move the river cleanup discussion
For the past year, a group of conservationists has been inviting farmers to “Friendship Tours” along the
Minnesota River and down to Lake Pepin on the Mississippi. The idea is simple: Get the two sides to talk to each
other, find some common ground and lay the groundwork for a working relationship to help determine the problems
of the Minnesota River and work together for solutions.
roads, parking lots and
other urban development
that increases impervious
surfaces.
And Gupta said moisture-saturated
soil — from
increased precipitation —
also is causing upper slopes
of ravines to slough off into
the river.
“Some people believe
that additional water from
drained agricultural land is
increasing river flows and
contributing to sediment
production,” Gupta said.
“Our data indicate that’s
probably not true.”
Many scientists who’ve
studied the river basin
accept some of Gupta’s
observations but not his
core analysis that farm
drainage has had little
effect.
“The farm groups have
come up with reasons why
drainage is good. Some
have merit and some are a
stretch,” said Norman
Senjem, who recently
retired after many years
with the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency.
Senjem said the MPCA
did include Gupta’s views in
agency studies.
And the latest comprehensive
study, presented
recently, analyzed 70 years
of data and concluded that
changes to the rural landscape
and drainage are the
primary drivers of increased
river flows and sediment
problems.
Dan Engstrom, a scientist
with the St. Croix
Research station, said much
of the water now delivered
to rivers via drainage used
to lie across a landscape of
vegetation and wetlands
and slowly found its way
into rivers or simply evaporated.
River podcast
on the web
To hear a podcast with Editor
Joe Spear and Staff Writer
Tim Krohn discussing this
series, go to
www.mankatofreepress.com
and type “river podcast” into
the search bar at the top of
the page.
He said increased precipitation
of about 8 percent
since 1940 doesn’t account
for the rate of flow increase
in rivers. And, he said precipitation
has not increased
in May and June, but river
flows have.
While farm groups are
taking a more active role in
the debate, there is little discussion
by anyone of requiring
farmers to alter drainage
practices. The federal EPA
does not regulate non-point
sources such as farm
drainage nor does the state.
“I wonder sometimes
why there’s so much concern
by farm groups
because there is no regulatory
enforcement,” Senjem
said.
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FROM AMBER WAVES TO MUDDY WATERS
A SPECIAL REPORT
A6 The Free Press / Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Blue Earth County
Commissioner Will Purvis
has seen hundreds of feet
of land along his farmsite
on the Blue Earth River
erode away over the
decades. Purvis has taken
a lead role in dealing with
water quality issues with
the County Board.
Txt 1G9G to 48696
2011 Buick LaCrosse
$22,995
13
(888)354-8634
Pat Christman
PURVIS: Lake Pepin group invited to view erosion reduction projects
Continued from Page A1
Drew Campbell also have
been involved in outreach
with conservationists and
residents around Lake Pepin
Continued from Page A1
pushes for state help in
replacing the Metrodome.
Vikings chief financial officer
Steve Poppen said in a
presentation that the team
is $42 million below the
NFL average in local revenues,
a lag he attributed to
Metrodome deficiencies.
State Sen. Julianne
Ortman, who chaired the
hearing, stressed the point
of the gathering was not to
get behind specific funding
or location proposals but
rather for lawmakers to
gather information.
Even though the team’s
ease at the Metrodome
xpires at the end of the
urrent season, Ortman said
he was not yet convinced
hat replacing the
etrodome is as urgent as
he Vikings and some of
heir allies have portrayed.
“We’re being told this is
ery urgent, and frankly I’m
ot yet convinced,” said
rtman, a Republican from
hanhassen.
Rybak, in response to a
equest last week by senaors
that the city narrow
hree possible downtown
ites to one, said Tuesday
he current Metrodome site
ould be most cost-effiient,
could use existing
nfrastructure, and that the
ity could bring local contriution
to the table in the
orm of $300 million from
n existing city sales tax.
“We believe the Vikings
ould get into the site more
uickly than anywhere else,
iving them faster access to
he higher revenues they
eek,” Rybak said.
The Minneapolis offer of
300 million could give it a
eg up over the Ramsey
ounty proposal, on the site
f a former Army ammuniion
plant in suburban
rden Hills. Ramsey
ounty board members
oped to raise a half-cent
ales tax to pay a local
hare, but dropped that
pproach because it would
ave required a vote of
pproval by the public.
on the Mississippi River,
where much of the
Minnesota River’s sediment
is filling in the lake.
“They invited us to Red
Wing in September and we
At Tuesday’s hearing,
Ramsey County’s chief
financial officer, Lee
Mehrkens, said county
leaders would seek to
meet with Gov. Mark
Dayton and lawmakers on
the possibility of raising
county sales taxes on specific
items including food
and beverages, or motels
and hotels, for a local contribution.
talked about the sediment
and we developed a good
dialogue,” Purvis said.
They invited the group to
Blue Earth County recently
to view projects aimed at
reducing erosion, including
drainage ditch designs near
Mapleton aimed at releasing
water more slowly and a
project to restore and protect
riverbanks.
It’s hard to keep up with everything going on in the world today,
including the part that’s right around you. That’s why people look to
the newspaper, print or digital, to give them the community news and
insights they can’t find anywhere else. And besides, that gallery
opening could be the icebreaker you’ve been looking for.
P R I N T D I G I T A L T O D A Y T O M O R R O W
“I think we’re all going in
the same direction. We
don’t like our soil washing
into the river and ending up
in Lake Pepin, and they
don’t want it.”
VALLEY: Prehistoric river named for Gen. G.K. Warren
Continued from Page A1
Agassiz broke open near the
present day Browns Valley
on the Dakota/Minnesota
border and began sending
torrents of water toward
present-day Mankato where
it hit limestone bedrock that
sent the water heading
toward what is now the
Twin Cities.
River Warren drained
Lake Agassiz for thousands
of years.
(The prehistoric river got
STADIUM: Mayor offers $300M
its name from Gen. G. K.
Warren who, in 1868, while
looking for railroad routes
studied the river valley
and first explained how it
was created.)
After Lake Agassiz
drained, the flow of water
in the Minnesota River
became a relative trickle
in the bottom of the deep
valley.
Besides creating appealing
but erosive bluffs,
River Warren also made
the river valley a dreamscape
for geologists who
can easily study some of the
oldest rock formations in
the world that were exposed
by the deep cut into the
earth.
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SERVING MANKATO AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MINNESOTA
December 8, 2011
IN ARTS & CULTURE, C1
IMPROVING ‘THE
NUTCRACKER’
www.mankatofreepress.com
CNHI
NEWS TIP HOTLINE NO. 344-6385
IN SPORTS, D1
WILKINSON
OUT FOR YEAR
Newspaper
of the Year
THURSDAY
75 ¢
“They’re not my forces.
They are military forces
(who) belong to the
government.
I don’t own them.”
IN NATION & WORLD, A3
20 pages Volume 125, No. 249
IN THE VALLEY, B1
CHRISTMAS
TRAIN
More buffers likely to be required for
DRAINAGE DITCHES
Takes farmland
out of production
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
Few
argue
there
are benefits
to grass
buffer strips
alongside open
drainage ditches.
They filter
out fertilizer and
chemicals and can
slow erosion and
sediment getting
into waterways.
But across the
countryside there
From
amber waves
to
muddy
waters
The environmental threat
of the Minnesota River
Part 15 of of a 5
are very few of the recommended 16 1 ⁄2-foot
strips of grass next to ditches.
That will begin to change as more counties
begin taking an action that will trigger language
in a state law requiring buffers.
With farmland fetching $6,000-$10,000 an
acre, few farmers are volunteering to add buffer
strips, thereby taking land out of production.
A 1977 law requires the buffer strips along
open drainage ditches in just two cases. One is
if a ditch is “improved,” which means it is
made larger than originally designed. Such
improvements very rarely take place.
But Tom Kalahar, who’s been with the
Renville County Soil and Water Conservation
State or U.S. Highway
Stream or River
Lake
County ditch type
Open ditch
Tile ditch
Conservation, farm groups
look for common ground
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
For the past year, a group of conservationists
has been inviting farmers to
“Friendship Tours” along the
Minnesota River and down to Lake
Pepin on the Mississippi.
The idea is simple: Get the two
sides to talk to each other, find some
common ground and lay the groundwork
for a working relationship.
But Patrick Moore, director of Clean
Up the River Environment, which sponsors
the program, admits it’s an uneasy
Minnesota State
University students
Adam Nickel (left)
and Brett Nelson,
with the Water
Resources Center
and Department of
Biological Sciences,
process bottom
trawl samples near
the mouth of the
Blue Earth River.
The students,
with adviser
Shannon Fisher,
will be assessing
fish community
relationships with
habitat and water
quality in the
Minnesota River.
Pat Christman
Please see DITCHES, Page A5
Blue Earth County ditch and tile systems
Source: Blue Earth County Environmental Services
Blue Earth County has hundreds of miles of drainage ditches that
carry water from farm field tile lines. Some experts point to the extensive drainage system as a threat to river health.
alliance and mistrust is increasing as
the science increasingly points to farm
drainage as a major problem in the
river.
“We’re doing a canoe float with
members of the Corn Board. It’s pushing
them to the edge of their comfort
zone,” Moore said of the farm-industry
group. “And it’s pushing my people to
the edge of their comfort zone. People
on both sides are saying, ‘What the hell
are you doing?’”
Please see CONSERVATION, Page A5
File photo
Patrick Moore is co-founder of Clean Up the River Environment, which has been
making an effort to open up better communications with those in the farm sector.
Keeping Asian carp from
Minnesota River will be difficult
By Tim Krohn
tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com
MANKATO — Add giant flying carp to
the list of potential dangers to the
Minnesota River.
Last month, officials found DNA
from Asian carp in water samples taken
from the mouth of the Minnesota River.
They have not confirmed the carp are in
the Minnesota or upper Mississippi
rivers.
Intense efforts are under way to keep
the invasive Asian carp out of Minnesota
waters. The fish, which can reach monster
size and some which jump into the
air when startled, are moving up the
Mississippi.
State and federal officials, with a mandate
by the Legislature, are devising plans
to halt or at least slow their migration.
But some say the plans largely ignore
keeping the carp out of the Minnesota
River.
“Their planning process has had no
real consideration for the Minnesota
River,” said Scott Sparlin, a river advocate
from New Ulm who fishes the river
often.
“I just get the impression they’re writing
the Minnesota River off.”
But Jack Lauer, Department of
Natural Resources regional fisheries manager
in New Ulm, said there aren’t any
feasible ways to block the carp from getting
into the Minnesota River.
The existing plan, developed by state
and federal officials and supported by
Please see CARP, Page A5
New
approach
for breast
cancer
Drug combos
shine in trials
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Breast cancer
experts are cheering what could be
some of the biggest advances in more
than a decade: two new medicines
that significantly delay the time until
women with very advanced cases get
worse.
In a large international study, an
experimental drug from Genentech
called pertuzumab held cancer at bay
for a median of 18 months when given
with standard treatment, versus 12
months for others given only the
usual treatment. It also strongly
appears to be improving survival, and
follow-up is continuing to see if it
does.
“You don’t see that very often. ...
It’s a spectacular result,” said one
study leader, Dr. Sandra Swain, medical
director of Washington Hospital
Center’s cancer institute.
In a second study, another drug
long used in organ transplants but not
tried against breast cancer —
everolimus, sold as Afinitor by
Novartis AG — kept cancer in check
for a median of 7 months in women
whose disease was worsening despite
treatment with hormone-blocking
Please see CANCER, Page A2
Pearl Harbor
survivors
continue
to dwindle
The Associated Press
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII — In
wheelchairs and on walkers, the old
veterans came Wednesday to remember
the day 70 years ago when the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But
FDR’s “date that will live in infamy” is
becoming a more distant memory.
Fewer and fewer veterans who
experienced the attack on Dec. 7,
1941, are alive to mark the anniversaries
and most of them are in their
90s, many prevented by health problems
from traveling to Hawaii. One
survivors’ group said it would disband
because age and infirmity made it too
difficult to carry on.
“People had other things that they
wanted to do with the remainder of
their lives,” Pearl Harbor Survivors
Association president William
Muehleib said. “It was time.”
The 2,390 Americans who died in
the attacks are not forgotten. Besides
Pearl Harbor, there are remembrances
elsewhere.
Please see SURVIVORS, Page A2
UPCOMING
TOMORROW IN THE FREE PRESS
Early show
A young artist has a show at the
Emy Frentz.
Copyright 2011, The Free Press
Mankato, Minnesota
PAGEFINDER
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D3
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D4
Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6
Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4-C6
Nation-World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3
TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
WEATHER, PAGE B4
Colder
High near 20; low
near zero.
Comics, horoscope have moved
The comics Doonesbury and Mallard Filmore have
been moved to the comics pages in The Free Press, and
the horoscope Astrograph has been moved from the
comics page to The Free Press classified section next to
the crossword puzzle and Word Sleuth.
Online puzzles, jumble now up
The Free Press website offers users the ability to do
crossword puzzles and the jumble word puzzle online.
Go to mankatofreepress.com/puzzles and you’ll be
able to play the daily crossword puzzle or the daily jumble
in an interactive format that tells you when you’re
right or wrong.
The feature also has a timer to see how quickly, or
not, you can complete the puzzles.

The Free Press / Thursday, December 8, 2011
A5
CARP: No natural barriers on Minnesota River
Continued from Page A1
Gov. Mark Dayton, is focusing on
taking a stand against Asian carp
near St. Anthony Falls in
Minneapolis and St. Paul.
But the Minnesota River ties
into the Mississippi several miles
south of St. Anthony, leaving it
wide open for any carp that make
their way up the Mississippi.
Lauer said St. Anthony was
chosen because it’s the one place
the carp could possibly be held
back.
“The St. Anthony falls is a
natural falls and a natural barrier
(to fish),” Lauer said. But state
officials face a hurdle because
there is also a lock and dam
there that lifts and lowers boats
to navigate the Mississippi. That
lock carries water from the lower
falls to the river above — along
with any fish in the water.
State officials are asking
Congress to have the Army Corp
of Engineers close that lock and
dam if Asian carp are detected in
the area, creating a permanent
natural barrier.
“But that runs up against
boaters and commercial interests,”
Lauer said.
If the lock can’t be closed,
Plan B focuses on an area nearby
on the Mississippi at the Coon
Rapids dam. A barrier — possibly
using a wall of constant bubbles
that deter fish from swimming
through — would be erected
there.
“But barriers aren’t completely
effective,” Lauer said.
As for the Minnesota River,
some work has been done looking
at possible places to use a
barrier. But with no dams —
except near the start of the river
— it’s not very feasible, Lauer
said.
“There aren’t any natural barriers
(like waterfalls) and no
dams.”
Another issue is that there is
barge traffic on the lower end of
the Minnesota.
And he said, frequent and
increasingly larger floods on the
Minnesota would work against
any barrier efforts as water often
flows up over the banks, creating
temporary lakes and wetlands
that could give carp a way in.
Still, Lauer said it may be possible
to erect some type of barrier
on the Minnesota. “But should
we spend so much money to try
to stop one species?”
CONSERVATION: ‘Pitched battles don’t go anywhere’
Continued from Page A1
Moore, who helped found the
ontevideo-based group two
ecades ago, has spent his life
dvocating for the river while
uilding alliances with disparate
roups.
“We at CURE have suspended
udgment and are just listening
o farmers. But tensions are
amping up. Farmers are saying,
You don’t give us credit for what
e’ve done.’ We say fine, we’ll
isten.”
The tours visit farmers who
re using new types of farm
rainage to slow the flow of
ater off the land and to hold
ack nutrients. But the conrolled
drainage systems are
ore costly to install and only
And, he said, any barrier
would also keep native fish from
coming into the Minnesota
River. “Sturgeon and sauger are
species that need to travel long
distances to find spawning.”
Fisheries workers are checking
the Minnesota River for any
sign of the four species of Asian
carp, including the silver carp,
which is the one that flies above
the water.
“We’ve been out electrofishing
this summer and fall. There’s no
presence of the carp.”
Fisheries workers also recently
took 50 water samples from
different spots on the Minnesota
River to do “environmental
DNA” testing, which can indicate
whether Asian carp may already
be present in the water.
This spring similar testing on
the St. Croix River showed the
presence of silver carp DNA.
Later netting turned up none of
the carp. Officials said samples
could have been unreliable
because of high flood waters at
the time.
Besides the Minnesota River,
the new round of DNA testing
includes more samples from the
St. Croix and the Mississippi.
Early results from that round
of testing found Asian carp DNA
in the Mississippi River and in
the mouth of the Minnesota
River.
Sparlin said that if the
Minnesota River isn’t protected,
the river does have one thing
working in its favor — there are
a lot of native fish and fish
species in the river.
There isn’t much research on
the subject, but some think that
areas with healthy native fish
populations may make it harder
for Asian carp to get established
— or at least slow their spread
— because the native fish will
feed on small carp.
“The Minnesota has a lot of
fish,” Sparlin said. “The lower 25
miles of the Minnesota isn’t too
hot for fishing, but you get above
that and there’s tons of fish,”
Sparlin said.
Lauer agreed. “With the existing
game fish, with flathead and
channel catfish, walleye, sauger,
some predator species, it’s in
pretty good shape to keep the
Asian carp in check for a while,”
he said.
“The thing is we really have
no idea what effect Asian carp
would have on the Minnesota
River.”
work well on level land.
While he applauds those
efforts, they account for a minuscule
amount of land being
drained.
“There’s very small progress
being made. There’s a lot of pattern-tiling
going on, and that’s
what society rewards farmers to
do.
“Farmers have to feed the
world. They’re going full-speed
ahead, especially with the crop
prices the way they are and with
the way we subsidize farm production,”
Moore said.
“It makes total economic
sense to drain your farm fields.
Any rational human being would
do the same thing. We have an
ag system that has monocultures
and encourages drainage. That’s
just the way it is. We have to
look at whether that’s what we
want, and that’s where you get
into the arguments and discussions.”
Moore hopes that technological
improvements to managed
drainage systems and changes in
farm programs may help.
“It’s like the greening of Wal-
Mart. Something comes along
that puts a self-interest into it.
All that nitrogen going into the
water is a waste. Capturing that
waste and increasing profits is in
farmers’ interests. How can they
work with scientists and fix that
issue?”
Until then, Moore said the
two sides need to get to know
each other.
“We need the working relationship
— the pitched battles
don’t go anywhere.
“My board has 15 members.
They’re farmers, tree huggers,
biologists and housewives. They
want a way to have an intelligent
conversation. The cultures in our
valley, we don’t talk to each
other.”
DITCHES: More buffers to come
Continued from Page A1
District for 30 years, said
another part of the law will
bring more buffers.
“If there is a re-determination
of benefits, the 16 1 ⁄2-foot
buffer (requirement) kicks in.”
Determination of benefits is
a complex formula that determines
all of the farm land that
drains into a ditch and how
much farmers who own those
acres benefit from the drainage
system. They then pay their
share of costs — based on
those determinations — when
a ditch needs to be cleaned out
or otherwise maintained.
30 th Anniversary
Carnegie Art Center
Holiday Open House
December 3, 10, & 17
11-5 pm
Give handcrafted gifts
by local and regional artists.
Jewelry, handblown glass,
wooden bowls,pottery, original prints,
paintings,ornaments & more.
Carnegie Gift Shop
In the Historic Carnegie Library
120 S Broad Street, Mankato
Photos by Pat Christman
Staff and students from the Water Resources Center and Minnesota State University set out on the Minnesota River recently to net and survey
fish.
A young channel catfish exhibits a significant lesion potentially caused
by a parasitic infection. Physical abnormalities, such as this open
wound, are often used as a measure of water quality.
“What’s happening is a lot of
ditches are being re-determined
because the benefits were originally
determined 70 or 80 years
ago,” Kalahar said. With more
land now under till and
changes made to drainage systems
over the years, those benefit
determinations are out of
date and aren’t fairly dividing
costs among affected landowners.
Many area counties are
beginning the process of redetermining
ditch benefits
across the entire county. When
that process is done, the buffers
along ditches will need to be
added.