No doubt, many of you reading this were fighting high waters earlier this month, and in some cases, still waiting for flood waters to recede. So, what do you do once the flood waters recedes and you find significant damage to your property?
Landowners looking to repair damaged culverts, ditches and lakeshores first need to determine if a permit is necessary before beginning work. Those permits may be required by county, state, or federal agencies. In the case of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, those permits ensure that repair work meets all floodplain management standards, protects our lakes and rivers from pollution, and is completed in a manner that can be documented for state or federal disaster relief if available.
The DNR does not perform restoration work on flood-damaged private lands, but a DNR hydrologist can help you determine if permitting is required before repairing streambanks, shorelines, roadways or culverts. For example, most people in Murray County, including Lake Sarah and Lake Shetek, will work with Brian Nyborg in our Windom office (507-831-2900, ext. 224), but residents in extreme northeast Murray County will likely need to call Lucas Youngsma in our Marshall office (507-537-7258). We encourage people to reach out to them to help determine how they can proceed with the recovery efforts.
The DNR has a number of resources available on its website, www.mndnr.gov; including links that show how to apply for a general permit for flood repairs, and public waters inventories.
To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Murray County News or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.murraycountynews.net/sub/account_login.asp.
