Millions Of Dollars May Go To Cleaning the St. Louis River

220 Million Could Go To Water Quality

Governor Mark Dayton made a 220 million dollar proposal before the legislature to invest in improving water quality in Minnesota, some which would be applied to cleaning the St. Louis River Estuary.

The St. Louis River Estuary is one of the 43 locations throughout the great lakes that were identified by the International Join Commission for cleanup.

St. Louis Riverbed sediments are contaminated with pollutants that threaten public health, and contaminate fish and wildlife, because of Decades of uncontrolled pollution before modern pollution laws went into effect. But thanks to work by local, state, tribal organizations, and government organizations, the plan to clean up the river is ready.

As part of the effort to clean up the St. Louis river Estuary, the Minnesota Pollution control agency is seeking 12.7 million dollars in 2016 state bonding money. Supporters say state funding is crucial now, due to a limited-time availability of a 65% federal cost share match.

Wisconsin has already adopted a capital budget approach to address cleanup needs, and Michigan has created a $25 million dollar bonding program to clean up their contaminated Great Lakes Sites.

Representatives say restoring the Great lakes is not only critical for the environment, but that the direct economic benefits will total at least 50 billion dollars by things like increased tourism and recreation, and the rising of coastal property values.

The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District is also requesting 8.15 million dollars in funding for a combined heat and power project that will create electricity out of bio-gas that is currently being wasted.