Drainage projects in southwest Minnesota are on the list of recipients of a total $3.1 million in state grant funding, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) announced this week.

The Lyon County Soil and Water Conservation District, Yellow Medicine County, and Area II Minnesota River Basin Projects were among the local governments and organizations awarded Water Quality and Storage Program grants, BWSR said.

Lyon County SWCD Administrator John Biren said Thursday that the SWCD hadn’t yet received formal notification of a grant award from BWSR. But they had applied for grants on two different projects, on ditch systems in Lyon County, he said. One application would affect Judicial Ditch 12, and the other was for water retention structures on County Ditch 14.

In a news release, BWSR said the Water Quality and Storage Program focused on work that improves water quality, and helps make landscapes more resilient to severe weather events. Minnesota is getting more frequent and intense rainfall events, that can result in erosion, negative impacts to agriculture and infrastructure, and worse water quality, BWSR said.

Water storage practices help slow or reduce the runoff from rain events. Water storage can take many forms, including construction of water retention structures and wetland restoration, BWSR said.

“Adding more water storage to Minnesota’s landscapes helps communities better prepare for flooding and the associated impacts to infrastructure and farming,” BWSR Executive Director John Jaschke said. “Selected projects are strategically located in areas of the state that are especially prone to erosion and flooding.”

Yellow Medicine County Planning and Zoning Administrator Chris Balfany said the project for which the county had applied for a water storage grant would build two retention ponds on the County Ditch 9 system.

In Lyon County, Biren said the SWCD had applied for grant funding for two different projects. One project would downsize a culvert on JD 1. The grant request for that project was over $55,000, Biren said.

Lyon County SWCD’s second grant request was for a project that included building five structures in the CD 14 system, including water and sediment control basins, Biren said. The estimated construction cost for that project was over $961,000, he said.

The Water Quality and Storage Program was created through state legislation in 2021. In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated an additional $17 million for the Water Quality and Storage Program from the general fund. Last fall, the program received $21 million in Regional Conservation Partnership Program support from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, BWSR said.

In a news released, BWSR said it is monitoring ongoing actions and potential disruptions to the federal funds that support the Water Quality and Storage Program. However, the recent $3.1 million batch of grants was supported only by state funding sources, BWSR said.