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A recent report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency showed some improvement in regional and state water quality. It also showed that the number of impaired waters are rising, just not as quickly as before.

That’s not exactly a resounding victory, but it’s a start.

It shows the myriad water quality mitigation efforts are making a difference even if it seems small.

In Blue Earth County, two bodies of water were taken off the impaired water list. They include two sections of an unnamed body of water near Little Beauford Ditch. They run from headwaters to Victory Drive in Mankato and Victory Drive to the Cobb River.

They were put on the list in 2018 as a result of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used in agriculture. That chemical was banned a couple of years ago and as a result, there were no traces of it in the water. The water was flushed and cleaned.

So bans of certain harmful chemicals do make a difference.

Overall, the impaired waters list was not as much bad news as it has been in the past. The MPCA added 199 impairments over 54 bodies of water for 2023. That compares with a proposed 417 impairments over 305 bodies of water in 2022.

Overall, the MPCA has proposed to remove 27 listings from the impairment list this year.

But there’s still work to be done. The biggest challenge remains getting public and private sectors, including production agriculture, to continue to work on water quality issues. Several projects in the Mankato area have been underway including efforts to slow water runoff from farmland by creating bigger holding areas.

These projects cost taxpayer money, but they are well worth the investment. Water is a resource that all life needs to survive.

Anyone wishing to comment on the impaired waters list can do so at the MPCA website through Jan. 12, 2024.

— Mankato Free Press, Nov. 24