County waiting on approval, By LISA KACZKE, Staff Writer

Use of lake for wetland mitigation tabled

Koochiching County is awaiting approval by the Army Corps of Engineers to use wetland credits banked at Duininck Lake.

The Koochiching County Board tabled a motion to use the lake for credits because of a lack of information.

The credits would be used to mitigate wetland disruption as a result of development. They could purchased by private property owners or used by governments.

The Environmental Services Department recommended Duininck Lake be used for wetland mitigation in five projects that received cease-and-desist orders in a “one-time-only deal,” said Environmental Services Director Richard Lehtinen.

The amount of credits that would be needed is only known in one of the five projects so far, Lehtinen said. The price per credit is also not known. Whether the lake has been approved for mitigation by the Army Corps is also not known.

“We don’t have a thing to offer,” Commissioner Wade Pavleck said.

Commissioners discussed the issued Tuesday because if the lake is approved for credits by the Army Corps and a motion by the county board is on the books, the projects can move forward, instead of waiting until the next county board meeting, county Coordinator Teresa Jaksa explained.

There “is no such thing as one time,” and approving it would establish precedent, Pavleck said. He suggested the deal be offered to all developers, Pavleck said.

Commissioner Kallie Briggs agreed with Pavleck that it would create precedent, but affected businesses have a “critical time line” for moving forward, she said.

Briggs’ motion to use Duininck Lake for mitigation in the five projects with cease-and-desist orders failed for lack of a second.

The process to approve Duininck Lake, which is in the Big Falls area, for wetland credits began in the early 1990s. Commissioners had been told by the Army Corps that it was a done deal, Pavleck said.

A representative from the Army Corps’ St. Paul office was visiting the lake Tuesday, which shows that it’s not a done deal, Pavleck said.

The process has taken 14 years, Commissioner Chuck Lepper said. Every agency but the Army Corps has approved the use of the lake for wetland credits, he added.

The local airport commission wanted to use Duinick Lake when it expanded the airport, but was told by the Army Corps that the paperwork was lost, Pavleck said.

Lehtinen said Bill Best, of the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, began looking into the issue two months ago.

The original plan for Duininck Lake was to reserve it for county projects that need mitigation, and was not meant to be put on the market for wetland credits, Lehtinen said.

The county’s highway engineer and land commissioner are concerned about the using the credits for use other than on county projects, Lehtinen said.

The board also approved hosting a meeting with Robert Whiting, environmental chief in the Army Corps’ St. Paul office, and John Jaschke, executive director of BWSR.

The Aug. 16 meeting is a follow up to the June 18 meeting between the county and representatives from BWSR and the Army Corps.

The meeting is meant to be a working group discussion on the county’s concerns about wetland laws and will include two county commissioners, elected city officials and staff from the county, city and Koochiching Soil and Water Conservation District.

In other business, the board:

• Approved a purchase agreement and an easement agreement between Koochiching County and the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway Company. Canadian National attorneys asked for the agreements to be made using the DWP name, said Paul Nevanen of the Koochiching Economic Development Authority.

CN is planning to build a customs facility and railroad siding in the foreign trade zone near Ranier. The land is owned jointly by Koochiching County and the city of International Falls.

The $5 million project is part of CN’s $5 billion overall strategy, Nevanen told the board. It also fits into KEDA’s strategy to create a railway business park, Nevanen said.

• Approved passing a petition filed with Environmental Services to the city of Ranier. The petition was signed by 37 property owners in the Three Points North area requesting city water. The water would have to be provided by the city of Ranier, Lehtinen said.

Briggs said she would like the county board to monitor the request for city water for Three Points North, which is the Unorganized Township Road 415 and County Road 130 area.

• Heard Mark Trompeter’s concerns about the Jackfish Bay sewer project during public comment.

Trompeter claims that explosions have damaged his home, plane, trees and a new truck in June. He said he joked about threatening the drillers. He said he ran into drillers at Sha Sha Resort at the end of June, where the drillers verbally abused him and threw a drink at him.

“Now it’s July 10 and everybody up there has sewer but me,” Trompeter said.

Dennis Wagner of Wagner Construction, the contractor on the project, said he can’t find any subcontractors who will go on Trompeter’s property because Trompeter threatened them.

No damage could be found on Trompeter’s property, Wagner said.

• Met in the morning as the Koochiching Development Authority.

Board member Mike Hanson reported that a three-quarter-mile all-weather road is planned to be built at Big Falls peat project by late fall.

Pavleck told the board about an increase in production on the Iron Range and the county will benefit from the increase.