Brush Creek River Enhancement

Faribault County, MN | Water

Overview

The Faribault Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the Faribault County Drainage Department partnered to identify locations to implement best management practices (BMPs) in a targeted drainage system within the Brush Creek watershed within the Blue Earth River Basin. The targeting of BMPs focused on soil health, overland erosion, and streambank and stream channel stabilization. ISG provided preliminary concepts and cost estimates to secure funding and designed innovative BMPs for channel stability along the County Ditch 64 sub-watershed.

Opportunity

County Ditch 64, located within the Brush Creek watershed, is a unique drainage system with unusually steep characteristics of the open ditch and surrounding watershed. The drainage ditch was experiencing significant erosion causing channel and bank instability. ISG’s approach deployed river protection strategies to both stabilize the streambank and the channel within this priority watershed.

Solution

ISG helped the SWCD and Drainage Department secure a Minnesota Legacy Clean Water Fund grant of $250,000 to be used in combination with a Clean Water Partnership Section 319 federal grant to implement 20 near/on channel and various upland BMPs throughout the watershed. ISG engineered over 24 grade stabilization structures, including a two-stage ditch, approximately 2,500 feet long, to stabilize the steep channel and prevent further erosion. Additionally, fifteen rock riffle structures were constructed in the open channel to reduce upstream slope and velocity, stabilizing the channel and protecting the stream bank. It is estimated that these high priority resource points will reduce pollution loading by 176 tons of sediment and 203 pounds of phosphorus annually.

Blue Earth County Judicial Ditch No. 34

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C.R. Farms, LLP Wetland Bank

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