Few things stand in the way of the finalization of the Cedar River Watershed District’s draft rules after Wednesday night’s monthly meeting.

According to CRWD Administrator Bev Nordby, the rules came back without major changes from the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources.

The suggestions the state made to CRWD’s document are being set aside for discussion at July’s meeting, at which a mandatory public hearing of the rules will be held before the rules can become official. CRWD set the public hearing for 6 p.m., July 20 — one hour before its regular meeting.

If the rules are approved in July, CRWD staff will begin a public education campaign. Nordby and other staff members will send information to township clerks, counties, cities, surrounding soil and water districts and many private companies, such as engineers, realtors and contractors. They also plan to post information about permits and regulations on their website, cedarriverwd.org.

One question remains, however. A memorandum of understanding between CRWD and the city of Austin regarding the city’s Main Street flood mitigation project has not materialized, something city officials were hoping for several weeks ago. Both CRWD’s and Austin’s engineers must reach a consensus on their modeling results, which project water flow and flood scenarios with the future flood walls and berms in place. City Engineer Jon Erichson, CRWD Board Manager Mike Jones, along with both CRWD’s and Austin’s engineers met April 6 to review modeling. However, Erichson and the city of Austin are still waiting to see results from CRWD’s hired engineers, Barr Engineering.

Jones said he thinks the memorandum can be complete by June. Officials may also discuss more implications of snow dumping in June, as the MPCA released information to CRWD about environmental effects. The information was released too recently to discuss Wednesday night.