Please Comment by 4:30 pm, Saturday, March 14, 2026.

The Minnesota Legislature has given us a one-time opportunity to correct the Public Waters Inventory (PWI) to add missing waters, starting with Aitkin County.

PWI listing is an important way to recognize the presence and value of streams and wetlands even as Aitkin County is threatened by sulfide ore mining, draining, development, and other activities that could pollute and degrade wetlands and streams.

Working in collaboration with tribal staff, we have found an altered stream previously listed as a “ditch” and 14 wetlands in Aitkin County that meet Minnesota’s requirements to be listed as “public waters.”

Listing waters on the PWI can matter for environmental review of projects, whether they involve residential developments or industrial use. PWI listing can also limit construction, alteration, or drainage of waters.

Why is PWI Listing of Aitkin County Public Waters Important Now?

1. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) hasn’t updated and corrected Minnesota’s list of public waters since the 1980s. Legislative action (and appropriation of $1 million a year to DNR) gives us a one-time opportunity to update and correct the PWI.
2. The county-by-county PWI update process is starting with Aitkin County. Aitkin County is threatened by Talon Metals/Rio Tinto nickel-copper-cobalt mining in a massive sulfide mineralization as well as the drainage and fill of wetlands that results from development.
3. Minnesota laws allow adding PWI streams as public waters if they are altered natural streams, even if they have been artificially straightened or enlarged to support farming or development. Certain types of wetlands, using the “Circular 39” classification developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1950’s can be placed on Minnesota’s PWI. They are: a) shallow marshes (Class 3), deep marshes (Class 4), and open water wetland ponds (Class 5) over 10 acres in size in unincorporated areas.
4. In Aitkin County, segments of the unnamed tributary from north of Tamarack to the Tamarack River have been designated as part of a “ditch” even though these segments are an altered natural stream. Although the PWI lists most Aitkin County open waters, many shallow marshes, even marshes more than 1,000 acres in size, are neither recognized or protected.
5. Listing on the PWI is not the only protection for wetlands, but Minnesota laws can require environmental review and can limit or condition construction, alteration, or drainage of listed public waters and provide additional public participation and controls on development.

Your Comments to DNR by Mar. 14 to add streams and wetlands to the PWI will support better recognition and protection of Aitkin County public waters.

1. You can use the comment template below, with any personalized changes you’d like to make. This comment supports adding the wetlands and stream segments identified with numbered “feedback points” by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and WaterLegacy. Click here to see a map of the numbered feedback points that WaterLegacy will request be added to the PWI. Unless you contact us to request otherwise, your comment will be sent with a form listing all of these feedback points included in the letter below.
2. If you’d like to add additional wetlands or stream segments to the PWI, you can use DNR’s comment map at https://tinyurl.com/MAPCommentDNR-PWI. Your comment should still be sent to PWI.Update.dnr@state.mn.us.

Your comment on this form, with any changes you’d like to make will be sent directly to DNR hydrologist Wes Saunders-Pearce, at PWI.Update.dnr@state.mn.us. DNR’s deadline is 4:30 pm on Sat., March 14.

Need Support?

Please contact info@waterlegacy.org if you are having any difficulty submitting your comment or if you would like to see WaterLegacy comments with more detail Aitkin County streams and wetlands proposed for addition to the PWI.