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i i eltrami County's water plan could be called the Cadillac of water plans: they have staff, resources (including Bemidji State University) and sucxesses that set them apart. Clearly one of the most successful water planning efforts in the state, Beltrami County's list of accomplish- ments through water planning is impressive: it's done extensive diagnostic studies on Lakes Bemidji .and Irving, and followed those up with projects to combat the problem areas; and it's been successful in obtaining grants from a number f places, including the BWSR (cf~~l- lenge grants), the Pollution Control Agency (Clean Water Partnership), and the Environmental Protection Agency. Recently, the county received a BWSR water planning challenge grant to focus on stormwater management. New geographic information systems (GIS) software allows the county to play "what if games with what it calls "storm watersheds"-areas that drain to one stormwater pipe. After feeding certain information to the computer- -such as the amount of impervious surface and the amount of precipita- tion-the software allows the staff to look at the potential impact of various factors, including adding wet or dry basins, increased precipi- tation, and increased stree4 sweep- ing. Staff have been using the software to develop plans for each of the stormwatersheds in the cities. of Bemidji, Bagley and Park Rapids. ~! itkin con's ment, particularly on items such as tree removal and shoreland grading, which had been basically unregu- lated. to addition, Aitkin is one of the few counties that requires updated septic systems without .linking the requirement to a property transfer. Hughes said the SWCD staff contacts landowners with no permit on file and gives them 90 days to produce a permit or an agreement with a contractor to update their system. Landowner response has no4 been as negative as one might think, Hughes said, largely because the SWCD has accompanied their enforcement with a strong educa- tional effort. The district has mailed two newsletters to 97,000 property owners and has actively worked with Lakeshore property owners to form lake associations. Task force members have helped generate support for all of these initiatives in the community, Hughes said. "One of the reasons it (the shoreland ordinance) is working is because of the task force involve- ment," he said. Building on that success, Aitkin County is again involving a task force as it updates its water plan. This time, they're asking task force members 'what are the concerns now?' and "what have we accom- plished that we said we were going to do?',' Hughes said. One of the first projects resulting from the plans is a new basin at the water- front of Lake Bemidji in the city of Bemidji. The basin will serve as a holding pond, allowing sediment and nutrients from two storm sewers that currently drain directly into the lake to Beltrami cony on p. 4 r ~ _ ; ... o -~. i , .; .. _ ~- . 3 e",• ice`. `~1* One major project completed through the Beltrami water plan has been two holding ponds in Cameron Park on Lake Bemidji. The ponds catch runo,~'and allow for sediments and nutrients to settle. 3