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BOY LAKE-Cass County Board voted Tuesday night to assume enforcement of the state agricultural buffer law rather than to have Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources do so.

The 2017 Legislature extended the compliance start time to this fall. It requires permanent vegetation on a 50-foot strip between tilled agricultural land and public waterways.

Counties can choose whether to enforce the state law locally or to have the state do so. If BSWR enforces the law, it will do so with administrative penalty orders, according to John Ringle, Cass County environmental services director.

"I believe a more locally driven compliance monitoring program can better serve county property owners by working with them to gain better protection of our important water resources in Cass County," he said.

Environmental services staff have studied aerial photos of the county and believe 99 percent of the county is already compliant, Ringle said. He estimated less than 10 properties will need to make changes to comply with the law.

He said the county is less interested in collecting a penalty than in helping people to comply.

Cass has adequate staff to contact possible violators and work out a plan with them to help them comply, Ringle said. Each site will be viewed on the ground before contacting owners, he added. Cass will not rely on aerial photos alone.

Now that the county opted into the program, the county will become eligible to receive $43,774 in state money this year and $54,718 next year to help implement the program.

Some of that money can be used to match a landowner's contribution toward changes needed to help them comply with the law, Ringle said.

The next step will be to write either a resolution or an amendment to the county land use ordinance to incorporate provisions of the state law.

Should the Cass County program not work, the county has an option under the state law to stop its own program and turn enforcement back to the state at any time, Ringle said.

In other environmental services business Tuesday, the county board voted to set the Shingobee Island sewer and water service charge for the newly renovated Shingobee restaurant at $1,181.25 per quarter.

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, restaurant owners, will pay the system user fee to the sewer and water district, which is managed by the county.

The amount is based on the rate other island users pay for their lower flow volumes. Other users are largely residential. The restaurant is expected to generate about 2.5 times the collective flow volume of the other users.

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