Shutdown Shouldn't Hurt Watershed District

The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District should escape most effects of a state government shutdown.

“We will stay open and conduct business as usual,” watershed district spokeswoman Telly Mamayek said in an e-mail interview. The district covers roughly 180 square miles and includes the Minnehaha Creek, as well as Lake Minnetonka.

The watershed district funds its work primarily through its own tax levy, “with a very small amount coming from state funding.

“Some grant-related activities also could be affected, but the District doesn’t have any major programs that depend on state grants in 2010 and 2011,” Mamayek said. 

A Department of Natural Resources shutdown would not have a rollover impact on the district either.  

A shutdown would slow projects that need state approval, but effects should be minimal in the short term because most of the district’s current projects are still in the design phase and because most capital improvement projects are done in the winter.

Regulatory action would also be delayed if there is a wetland violation that requires state involvement.

“While the MCWD is concerned about the effect of a shutdown on the District’s residents, it will not have a direct impact on the MCWD’s operations,” Mamayek said.

The impact of state shutdown would be much more pronounced on the DNR, however. All 74 state parks, recreational areas and camp grounds—visited by millions of people every year—would close. Conservation and enforcement operations would also cease, and ecological monitoring would come to a halt.

“If it was a short duration the impacts would be relatively minimal,” said Steve Hirsch, director of the DNR’s Division of Ecological and Water Resources. “If it’s a longer duration I think we would start to become concerned.”