C. Relation to Drainage Law and Drainage System Management C. Relation to Drainage Law and Drainage System Management

C. Relation to Drainage Law and Drainage System Management

While there are few requirements in Drainage Law that necessitate drainage authorities’ use of specific BMPs in their administration of Minn. Stat. 103E drainage systems, BMPs can improve the function and stability of the system for drainage purposes, as well as support the environmentally effective application of drainage law. The BMPs provided in this chapter support Chapter 103E Drainage Law in two primary ways.

First, the BMPs presented in this chapter provide information and support for drainage authorities work through the drainage system design and construction considerations required by the following Statute:

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.015 CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE DRAINAGE WORK IS DONE, Subdivisions 1, 1a, 2.

These changes resulted in the requirement of “consideration” of multipurpose water management criteria. The full list of environmental, land use, and multipurpose water management criteria as listed in Minn. Stat. § 103E.015 Subd. 1 are presented in Chapter 3 of the Minnesota Public Drainage Manual. Consideration of these criteria ensures that BMPs are evaluated during the planning and design of a drainage project (as defined in Minn. Stat. § 103E.005, Subd 11).

Second, the BMPs presented in this chapter supplement and enhance drainage system repair, maintenance, and management activities addressed by the following Statutes:

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.021 DITCHES MUST BE PLANTED WITH PERENNIAL VEGETATION. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 6. Drainage authorities were first given permissive authority to require the minimum 1-rod grass strips in 1959. The vegetative buffer strips with a minimum of 1-rod (16.5-foot) width has been required on legal ditch systems since 1977 when a new legal ditch was established, the improvement of an existing ditch was completed, or during a redetermination of benefits. In 2007, ditch authorities were given the ability to incrementally install buffer strips on ditch systems without a separate viewing process. The 2007 revision to Minn. Stat. § 103E.021 also allows for the incremental installation of side inlet pipes along ditch systems.
  

Note: During the 2015 Special Legislative Session, Governor Dayton signed into law Minn. Stat. § 103F.48 that requires buffers to be established on all public drainage ditches by landowners no later than November 2018. Public ditch buffers placed under this statute only become 103E buffers if and when the drainage authority makes them a part of the drainage system by paying damages. Until then the landowner will be required to maintain the buffers.

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.227 IMPOUNDING, REROUTING, AND DIVERTING DRAINAGE SYSTEM WATERS, Subd. 1.a. allows for impounding, rerouting, and diverting of drainage system waters. Subd 1.a provides one pathway along which external organizations can interact with the drainage authority in regard to management of drainage waters. “To conserve and make more adequate use of our water resources or to incorporate wetland or water quality enhancing elements as authorized by Minn. Stat. § 103E.011, subdivision 5, a person, public or municipal corporation, governmental subdivision, the state or a department or agency of the state, the commissioner of natural resources, and the United States or any of its agencies, may petition to impound, reroute, or divert drainage system waters for beneficial use.” Typically this section has been used to restore wetlands on a drainage system, or divert flows into multipurpose flood control impoundments.
  

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.701 REPAIRS. Subd, 1, and 6. This section also supports the use of BMPs on drainage systems. Subdivision 1 includes provisions for “resloping of ditches and leveling of spoil banks if necessary to prevent further deterioration, realignment to original construction if necessary to restore the effectiveness of the drainage system”. It also allows for incidental straightening of tile systems and replacement of tile with the next larger size that is readily available. Subdivision 6 provides for repair of a drainage system including the preservation, restoration, or enhancement of wetlands; wetland replacement; the realignment of a drainage system to prevent drainage of a wetland; and the incorporation of measures to reduce channel erosion and otherwise protect or improve water quality.
  

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.705 REPAIR PROCEDURE. Subdivisions 1 and 3. This section lays out procedures for dealing with inspection, buffer strip violations and repair after a disaster.
  

• Minn. Stat. § 103E.715 PROCEDURE FOR REPAIR BY PETITION. Subdivision 6. This section provides a procedure for repair by resloping ditches, incorporating multistage ditch cross-section, leveling spoil banks, installing erosion control, or removing trees.