Soil and water official outlines Goodhue County well‑inventory, nitrate concerns and stream restoration plans

A county soil and water conservation official told the Goodhue County Board of Commissioners that a contracted inventory with the Minnesota Department of Health aims to identify undocumented private wells across the county and to notify landowners where no well records exist.

“There’s about 6,000 parcels to review,” the official said, and staff had located “1,600 new wells” so far from county records. The office will mail letters to parcels with no data and help residents who need assistance filling out the form.

The presentation also flagged a water‑quality concern in one town’s drinking supply. “Right now there’s about 7 milligrams per liter of nitrates in the drinking water,” the official said, noting the shallow municipal well has seen rising nitrate levels that staff largely attribute to manure in the wellhead area, intensive agriculture and porous soils. The official said targeted conservation practices — including no‑till planting, reduced or better‑timed manure application and cover crops — can reduce nitrogen reaching groundwater “by about 30%” when adopted in recharge areas.

Commissioners and residents raised operational and testing questions. The official said the city operates a deeper emergency well with near‑zero nitrates that is hard water‑quality‑wise to blend into the distribution system without treatment, and that private wells in surrounding areas show similar nitrate levels to the city’s shallow well. The county offers free private well testing to rural residents via a lab partnership; residents can request kits through a county form.

The official described a longer list of conservation projects across watershed partnerships — noting a decade‑old shift from county competition for state funds to a watershed‑scale approach that pools resources for the Cannon and Zumbro watersheds. “We ended up really competing really heavily against each other for the same funds,” the official said, and working at the watershed scale has increased capacity to build on‑the‑ground projects.

Staff highlighted the Little Cannon River effort, where five landowners sold Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fishing easements to create public access and enable streambank restoration of steep, eroded banks. The presenter said restoration would require multiple permits (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Minnesota DNR and others) and that construction funding would likely come from sources such as the Lessard‑Sams Outdoor Heritage fund and DNR grants. The county office expects to help with design work but not construction costs.

Other projects noted included feedlot manure‑storage installations, rain‑barrel programs, a repaired dam near Kenyon that drains about 120 acres of cropland, and an Orion feedlot nutrient‑management project. The presenter emphasized engineering standards for constructed works — concrete liners, water stops and specified rebar spacing — and said these projects are voluntary and typically require cost‑share from landowners.

The office also described outreach efforts using short video clips and local TV placements to encourage farmer‑to‑farmer adoption of practices. A farmer featured in the videos said, “For a dairy farmer, for me, the challenge is you’re always taking everything off the land and replacing it a lot of times with liquid product. So that’s where this cover crop stuff has really helped us out.” The presenter said the office uses 30‑second and longer clips to reach rural viewers affordably.

The briefing closed with a request for more county support for outreach and for in‑season tours to showcase projects to legislators and commissioners. There were no motions, votes or formal policy actions recorded during the session; staff asked for continued partnership and to return with additional details as funding opportunities and project designs advance.