Committee hears request for $150,000 RiverWatch appropriation; bill laid over

Sponsor introduced Senate File 3127 to provide a one-time appropriation of $150,000 in fiscal year 2027 for RiverWatch, a hands-on water-monitoring program run by Friends of the Minnesota Valley that serves high schools in the Minnesota River Basin and seeks to expand to the Cannon River watershed.

The sponsor said 100% of the requested legislative funding would go directly to program costs, which are volunteer-driven and supply consumable testing materials. “These students in the 28 schools currently served receive direct classroom instruction and sampling at the water’s edge,” the sponsor said.

Ted Suss, president and executive director of Friends of the Minnesota Valley, told the committee the organization exhausted cash reserves after running the program this year and cannot continue without legislative support. “We ran the program this year out of our cash reserves and quite frankly, we are at 0 cash reserves. We cannot run the program another year without legislative appropriation,” Suss said.

An author's amendment correcting allocation and year details was adopted by voice vote, and the committee laid the bill over for future consideration. The sponsor said the request is for a one-time general-fund appropriation and emphasized that the organization does not charge indirect costs to the grant.