80% of S.D. waterways are polluted. We cannot allow our water to get filthier. We must mandate riparian buffers
While South Dakota continues to allow its waterways to deteriorate, becoming filthier and filthier, Donald Trump is hastening the demise of the entire planet.
Those who once waded and swam and fished in South Dakota’s water can no longer allow their children to do so. And the most recent news is that now one needs to be careful of even eating fish caught here. Even the higher than normal mercury levels in fish are the result of human activity.
Right now, 80% of South Dakota rivers, streams AND lakes are too polluted for safe fishing or swimming.
The South Dakota Senate just this session approved a $10 million bill that would further support the riparian buffer initiative that already exists, but it remains toothless since it is not mandatory. These are perennial vegetative buffers of up to 50 feet along lakes, rivers and streams. They help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment.
But any and all farmers who choose not to can continue allowing their livestock to defecate as they stand in rivers and streams to drink or cool off, sending bacterial loads downstream, along with nitrates and other contaminants (like fecal coliform bacteria) from grazing zones. (South Dakotan Jon Beringer shared a photo of cattle in Lake Alvin last year).
Our neighbor Minnesota passed a mandatory Buffer Law in 2015, and as of 2024, it has achieved 99% compliance. And Iowa rates itself #1 in the use of buffers. Yet here in South Dakota, buffers remain strictly voluntary and way too few are engaged in it. The law specifies 575 lake listings and 11,000 miles of streams that are eligible, yet the voluntary program has so far registered a total of 83 linear miles of buffers. Exceedingly pathetic. Thus, our children must stay out of the water and we can no longer trust eating the fish caught here.
Meanwhile, we can no longer depend upon the federal government to watch out for us. The American president has gutted the Clean Water Act as well as taking or proposing over 400 actions that threaten the environment, public health, and our ability to confront climate change.
The United States was once the global leader in conservation and now it’s known for environmental destruction.
We South Dakotans need to take a stand for the Earth. This is NOT a partisan issue. Our children will judge us accordingly. And rightly so.
It’s quite obvious the voluntary program is not even close to working.
We need to make riparian buffers mandatory.
Van Carter of Sioux Falls is a retired broadcast journalist and environmentalist who published a green website for 15 years.
Photo: Jon Beringer, from his January, 2025, South Dakota Standard post
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