The Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District urges residents of the district to vote "yes" on the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment on Nov. 4. The amendment would dedicate a three-eights of a cent sales tax for the next 25 years. Most of the money would be used to protect and restore lakes, rivers, wetlands, streams and groundwater.
In the State of Minnesota, there were 2,575 impaired waters as of June 10. Ditch 6, the stream that runs between the Lake Okabena dam and Lake Ocheda, is on the state's impaired waters list.
The Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District is proud of its efforts to protect and enhance our water resources. We thank all of the citizens that support this work. A good job has been done working with individual landowners. Our watershed is pretty well filter stripped upstream of Lake Okabena. We look forward to working with landowners to continue this protection down to Lake Bella and Worthington's well fields.
We are doing our best to protect your drinking and industrial water, while trying to improve the overall quality of the water in the lakes and streams of the district. Working with the City of Worthington and other organizations, we have protected other sensitive and erosion-prone areas. It is not an easy job. More needs to be done in our watershed district and throughout the State of Minnesota.
The amendment would provide a source of funding to restore wetlands, install filter strips, plant native grasses, protect well recharge areas and improve fish and wildlife habitat. Everyone in the area could benefit from cleaner lakes, streams and well water.
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We urge you to vote "yes" for the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.
