Commissioners address ditches, nuclear power

During their Nov. 4 work session and meeting, Waseca County commissioners spent more than an hour discussing the dozens of agricultural drainage “ditches” which are controlled by the county, but technically owned and maintained by property owners whose land benefits from them.

 

Commissioner De Malterer referred to the ditches as “the largest infrastructure in the county.” The county website states the system includes well over 250 miles of length, roughly half of which is comprised of open ditches and half of underground tile.

 

Chris Howard, director of the county’s department of land and water resources, offered a brief summary of circumstances he has encountered since acquiring his position in 2022. He mentioned one of the county’s goals for his department is bringing stability to county practices surrounding the ditches; prior to his tenure, oversight of the system had been irregular, sometimes leaving property owners at loose ends when it came to repairs or maintenance.

 

Howard described some of the steps he has taken and continues to take to keep work and finances “moving in the right direction.”

 

He mentioned he has frequent conversations with property owners who do not understand why they must pay assessments toward ditch maintenance, or how those assessments are determined. Many county ditches were in place in the early 1900s, he said, with a “heyday” of establishing them in the 1960s.

 

In order for a system to exist, property owners must have contacted the county to request that a ditch be established: No one landowner could arrange one, since they entail channeling water across varied landscapes and over numerous property lines. The “grandparents” who owned the land at the time the ditches were established were well acquainted with the requirements and expectations, since they were usually the ones who requested the construction and worked with the county to get it accomplished.  The “parents,” that is, the next generation, were aware of the circumstances, but not so well acquainted. By now, Howard suggested, the people who own the benefitted property are two generations removed from the original work, and are sometimes barely acquainted with the associated expectations.

 

“I’ve spent a lot of time explaining it all,” said Howard. “So now more people understand why they’re being assessed for work done on the system, even though it might not be on their property.

 

“Can we make everyone happy? Well, that’s debatable.”

 

After studying and discussing Howard’s summary, county commissioners, acting as the county ditch authority, approved assessments to be levied against property owners in 2026. Assessments are being collected based on needs for each system, which might be to pay for repairs or improvements already made, to set aside funds toward expected future work, and to support necessary administrative tasks, including some of the costs of operating the department of land and water resources and hiring professionals, such as engineers and surveyors who perform needed tasks.

 

In other business, commissioners approved “Operation Green Light,” a proclamation encouraging area residents to use green lighting to show support for veterans. The county courthouse will be lit in green for a week in observance.

 

Commissioners also chose to have Waseca County join many other Minnesota counties in requesting that a statewide moratorium preventing the construction of any new nuclear power plants in the state be lifted. The ban was enacted by the state legislature in 1994. There are currently two nuclear plants in operation, one near Red Wing, the other near Monticello. In casual conversation, those present at the meeting speculated that, even if the ban should be lifted, it would be 10 years or more before an additional full-sized nuclear plant could be planned, built and operating.