Ag department uses sales tax funds for water quality
Date Modified: 12/17/2009 9:43 AM
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Agri News staff writer
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is using money raised through a 2009 increase in the state's sales tax for a water quality project in southeastern Minnesota.
MDA, which is overseeing the field work of the project, is contributing $395,000 from the state's Clean Water Fund, said assistant commissioner Joe Martin.
Minnesota voters approved the Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas Amendment in November, 2008.
On July 1, 2009, the amendment increased the state's sales tax rate by three-eighths of 1 percent.
One possible use of the funds is to assess the quality of lakes, rivers and streams.
The funds will go toward collecting information about the current conditions of the Root River Watershed, working with local soil and water conservation districts that help with field work and running lab analysis.
The project's overall goal is to identify where it would be most efficient to place conservation methods in the watershed, which is mostly agricultural land, to improve water quality.
Martin said he could see a proposal to request more money from the fund for this project in the future.
Monsanto Company donated $125,000 to the project so monitoring equipment could be purchased.