DNR let Lutsen ski resort violate water permits for years

[NephronRacing]

Lutsen will not be getting my business!  I can't believe they think it's okay to take about 25% of the rivers flow during low flow months.

From MPR...

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/morning_roundup/2011/06/dnr-let-lutsen-ski-resort-violate.html

[Bobby Bass]

The problem is what? The old permit was decades old and as reflected with the new permit inadequate The water is used to make snow? Which when it melts returns to the watershed and then back in to the river. 

[corny13]

Bobby it has nothing to do with BASS...   It means the end of a good trout fishing river when Lutsen could be taking the water out of Superior with No Problems.

Here are Minnesota Trout Unlimited statements.."

•The Poplar River has been a trout stream for hundreds of years.
•All surface waters of the state are public resources which landowners do not own, but may make reasonable use of under a water appropriation permitting system.
•State law limiting consumptive use of surface waters was enacted in the 1930s, long before Lutsen Mountains Corporation (“LMC”) obtained a permit for a relatively small appropriation. That permitted withdrawal of less than 13 million gallons per year is not the issue here.
•Water is being removed during the critical time of low winter flows and can greatly reduce the survival of eggs, juveniles and adult trout in the lower 2.6 miles of river.
•In 2001 LMC began to drastically increase water withdrawals from the Poplar River, taking between 60 million and 107 million gallons per year.  These excessive removals were never permitted and are not legal.  These last 10 years of unpermitted withdrawals are the real issue for anglers and citizens.
•Upon learning of the drastically increased withdrawals in 2002, the DNR informed LMC that such additional, excessive taking of public water was not permitted and must stop.  So far the DNR has chosen only to strongly encourage a switch to other water supplies, rather than firming enforcing state law, while LMC continues choosing to violate the law.
•Now LMC seeks special legislation to condone these extra withdrawals and increase them to 200 million GPY.  This is 90 million GPY more than it has ever used and 16 times more than its permitted amount.
•LMC could pipe water from nearby Lake Superior, but chooses not to.
•Current rates of water withdrawals are harming the trout and steelhead fisheries enjoyed by many anglers.
•Doubling the rate of withdrawal from the existing 4 cubic feet per second to 8 cubic feet per second, which LMC intends to do, could decimate a fishery already diminished by the existing 4 cfs withdrawal rate.
•Anglers should not be forced to sacrifice a public resource to a private business, especially when an alternate water supply is readily available

[corny13]

Here is the quote from Minn trout unlimited on why the winter draw downs are bad..
 

Why wintertime withdrawals are so destructive:

 

•Lake Superior tributary streams are almost entirely dependent upon surface waters, and lack any significant amounts of cold, stable groundwater. Consequently the period of low, cold winter flows and extremely cold air temperatures is critical to the survival of trout and steelhead fisheries.

•When water levels fall too low in winter the pools become too shallow to prevent their freezing solid to the bottom.  When this happens virtually all aquatic life is wiped out.  Water will then flow on top of this ice and things appear fine, but the fishery will have been decimated.  Even less drastic withdrawals from low winter base flows which do not cause complete winter kill aggravate already difficult conditions and substantially reduce survival and population levels.   

•The Poplar River supports a growing “coaster” brook trout population in the lower reaches, downstream of the LMC water withdrawal points.  Brook trout are fall spawners and their eggs incubate in the stream gravel during the winter months.  Water withdrawals from low winter base flows aggravate tough conditions for brook trout reproduction and survival.  Lower winter flows mean lower egg and juvenile brook trout survival and lower population levels year round. Reduced flows which cause streams to freeze to the bottom mean destruction of all eggs, juveniles and food sources.  Since resident brook trout (found between the upper falls and Hwy 61) are largely 2 years old are less, successive winter kills can nearly exterminate this population. It is very likely that small juveniles are annually washed down from above the upper falls and re-stock this section.  This masks the impacts of current water removals.
 

•The Poplar River also provides a productive and popular wild steelhead fishery in the lower reach.  While steelhead are spring spawners and thus their eggs are not at risk from the LMC withdrawals, low flow conditions in the winter limit the survival of juvenile steelhead. Obviously a winter “freeze out” would wipe out two or more year classes of steelhead, while going largely or entirely undetected.
 

•That trout and steelhead populations are now relatively low downstream of the pump intakes, as compared to above them, does not mean the lower section could not support more robust populations if water removal ceased.  A very productive brook trout fishery flourished here before the ski resort.  The current situation may only be evidence that a decade or more of excessive water withdrawals is already limiting these populations.  Indeed the impaired waters study conducted here notes that neighboring streams with similar habitat (but no water withdrawals) have markedly better populations.  It identifies the water withdrawals from Poplar River as one likely cause of this.

[Bobby Bass]

Now that is a much better explantion of the problem   

[snow]

Not to mention the salmon,they run up the poplar in the fall as well,infact the minnesota state record chinook salmon came from the popular.I'm curious why the DNR does'nt step in? after all the time and money spent stocking the rivers up there,caught some dandy "slake" trout on the popular too.

Thanks for the headsup~

[naturalistmn]

Great habitat awareness topic guys!   Keep up the good work, topics such as this need some light shed on them.