White Earth Nation: Water Quality

Who We Are

The White Earth Reservation sits in northwestern Minnesota and contains numerous lakes. Tribal officials routinely monitor the water quality in the largest and most-used lakes, although many of the smaller and less-used lakes are not monitored regularly. These lakes are used for fishing, wild-rice production, and recreational activities.

Wild rice is of tremendous cultural, traditional and economic importance to the Anishinaabeg people of the Great Lakes region, including those who are part of the White Earth Nation. Wild rice harvesting also provides food security and economic activity to the tribe and its members, and is a steady source of income and food.

What We Aim to Achieve

White Earth is requesting the capability to perform a broad suite of measurements that provide a comprehensive overview of water quality relevant to wild-rice harvesting, fisheries, and recreational use, primarily swimming (Box 1). White Earth is also interested in using this to data detect the impact of commercial agriculture operations (including fertilizer run-off), power plants, and leaking septic systems. The goal of the data collection is to identify issues of concern that merit further scientific research and management attention, even if these measurements cannot form the basis for legal action Thus, White Earth prioritizes a system that can be used in many different places over a more precise system that is too expensive or complicated to use widely. Because many lakes in the area are not easily accessible, White Earth would prefer data collection methods that can be compared to remote-sensing data to allow estimates of water quality in remote lakes.

Wild Rice Locations and Sulfate Measurements

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(Credit: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

To complement the measurements, White Earth is also requesting a database. This database should incorporate geospatial data and make it easy to contribute new data, review old data, and compare different variables in location and time.

Both the sensors and the database should be usable by individuals without advanced scientific training.

With respect to fishing, the key variable of interest is methylmercury. Mercury is released into the atmosphere by some power plants and can be deposited into rivers and lakes, ultimately accumulating in fish, and sufficient amounts of Mercury can cause harm to unborn babies or young children. There are coal-based plants near White Earth, which motivate the interest in monitoring mercury levels.

Many of the lakes in this region are inaccessible (either on private land or too remote). Because of this, White Earth would like to use the data collected to ground-truth satellite measurements and provide on-the-ground data to compare to satellite data to monitor conditions in isolated lakes. The sampling kits should include instructions for comparing data collected in the field with environemental satellite data, along with supporting literature showing established methods of correlating between the two data types.

The accompanying database should be a resource for preserving and analyzing the collected data. It should allow students to examine trends in a specific area, compare water quality across several lakes, and identify or flag areas at risk. The database, like the sensor or sampling kit, should be easy to use by people without a scientific background. The database should allow easy comparison to other geospatial data to look for correlations.

Why is it Important?

Wild rice harvesting also provides food security and economic activity to the tribe and its members. For wild rice, the key variables include nutrients associated with plant life, including Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus, dissolved Oxygen, and Sulfates. The turbidity, color and clarity and pH of water are also known to influence wild rice growth and viability.

The use of lakes and rivers for recreation, including swimming, depends on water quality and these waterways must be monitored for pathogenic microbial contaminants. A protocol to identify and quantify commonly accepted indicator species for microbial waterborne diseases is sufficient. The White Earth Tribal and Community College does not have microbiological laboratory equipment or sterile laboratory environment, so the sampling protocol and/or equipment must be useable in the field.

A protocol for identifying or detecting invasive species of particular concern in Northern Minnesota is desired. Invasive aquatic animals and plants are spreading through the rivers and lakes of the American Midwest. Maintaining data on the spread of invasive species will help characterize changes in the native aquatic ecology.