The House and Senate has passed language essentially giving authority to the legal agreement between Minnehaha Creek Watershed and MnDOT on how to properly design the interchange. Should MCWD and MnDOT not reach an agreement, waiting "on deck", in baseball lingo, is the Judge with the Coldwater Protection Law as his guide, the independent consulting engineer as best design advocate, and the full weight of the court behind them.

The bill is however, stalled, waiting for conference committee. It must go through committee to match language (on the rest of the bill, not our amendment) before heading to the Governor for finial signing. The legislature is continuing to discuss budgets and has not yet gotten around to committees. The timeline of the committees is unknown at this time.

At the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District, who has regular watershed authority over the interchange area, MnDOT voluntarily relinquished the permit for the old flawed interchange design on 4-17-02. Lower MN accepted and declared the permit null and void at their meeting.

This means that the new design (still in concept phase) once drawn up, will head for Minnehaha Creek Watershed for review. If it passes the muster with MCWD (having the weight of State Law-assuming the amendment passes) the design will then head to Lower MN Watershed for a second review, for a permit. If it passes that, then MnDOT can start construction on the interchange.