Dear Reader,
Clean water. So vital to our lives and something we all value. At the Cannon River Watershed Partnership we envision a time when the waters of our area are healthy, when it is safe to swim in all the lakes and rivers, when we can eat fish without worry, enjoy a canoe trip free from garbage
in the river, and all drinking water is clean. In order to achieve this vision, it is important for the people who live and recreate in this area to understand some information about the water, land and wildlife, to get out on the water and to take action to improve the water. This document is our attempt at providing some of that information and sparking your interest in getting involved. Many good things have happened in the last fifty years. In 1958 a memo from the DNR indicated the Cannon River by Faribault was uninhabitable for fish due to industrial pollution of the water. The river has come a long way since then. We no longer discharge raw municipal sewage to the
rivers, industrial facilities treat their discharge to limit pollution, cities are doing a better job with street runoff, and farmers are working to improve their practices to protect the water. There are signs of progress such as the comeback of the Bald Eagle and some of the streams and lakes showing
improvements. There is still a long way to go in some areas and we hope you will be our partner in working toward making the needed changes a reality.
Special thanks to the Water Resources Center at Minnesota State University Mankato for compiling much of this document and to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for providing the funding to make it happen.
Beth Kallestad
Executive Director
Cannon River Watershed Partnership