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Minnesota DNR outlines statewide public waters inventory update; Clay County part of first wave
Summary
DNR hydrologist Wes Saunders Pierce told the Clay County Board the agency will correct errors in the Public Waters Inventory under a 2024 statutory change and plans outreach and local review beginning mid-November for Clay County.
A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources hydrologist briefed the Clay County Board Oct. 21 on the statewide Public Waters Inventory (PWI) update required by a 2024 change in state statute.
Wes Saunders Pierce, lead hydrologist for the project, said the DNR is conducting technical reviews to correct mapping and listing errors and will not reopen quasi-judicial decisions made during the original 1980s inventory. He said the update targets corrections such as designated trout stream tributaries identified by fisheries, watercourses removed by previous commissioner's orders and other clear errors.
Saunders Pierce told commissioners the statewide project is funded by the legislature and the DNR hired five full-time temporary positions to accelerate work. The agency plans to work roughly 12 counties per year using four regional teams and an approximately "quasi-alphabetical" schedule. Clay County is in the first wave; the DNR reported it has completed about two-thirds of the technical review for Clay County and expects to publish a preliminary map of corrections in late November or early December.
He emphasized the process does not intend to revise ordinary high water marks or shoreland classifications statewide and will not change the land disposition of privately owned property if a public water is identified; identification does not create public access rights or easements. Anything added to the inventory will become subject to the state's buffer law.
The county will receive a preliminary map and landowner notifications; a 60-day comment period and a public meeting in-county will follow. After a provisional final map is published there will be a 90-day window to request the commissioner's review, replicating appeal pathways used in the original inventory.
Commissioners asked about trout stream designation methods, whether manmade lakes or pits would be added, and whether public waters on private land create easements. Saunders Pierce said trout streams are designated by the fisheries division using field measures and habitat criteria; manmade or truly artificial features are not automatically intended for inventory unless evidence shows a historical water resource; and identification does not change land ownership or access rights.
Commissioners and local staff were invited to propose suitable meeting locations and to use the DNR project web tools for tracking county status and submitting comments.
