ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Senate voted 61-0 Thursday on a bill to clarify and modify the state’s buffer requirements.

The clarifications give assurance to farmers and other landowners who had questions about buffer requirements on private lands, and the definition of public lands.

“Thanks to the valuable input of our state’s farmers and landowners and the tireless work of stakeholders, the bill we passed today provides needed direction and clarifications,” Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin said in a press release. “The bill provides flexibility to allow local control on how best to implement the law, and by clarifying the definition of public waters it prevents private land from being mapped, which was a major concern for many landowners. This legislation is a strong compromise, and is a step in the right direction.”

Sparks, who co-authored the bill, said the bill provides needed clarification and flexibility on how to best implement buffer requirements across the state.

Stakeholders from both parties, Gov. Mark Dayton’s office, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and the Board of Water and Soil Resources worked out compromise language that addresses concerns about the original bill. The Minnesota Farmers Union and the Minnesota Farm Bureau testified in favor of the final bill.

State Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, who co-authored a companion bill in the Minnesota House, told the New Ulm Journal some of the buffer legislation revisions include codifying the exemption for private ditches and noting that Minnesota may not expand on its current list of eligible public waters, shifting buffer jurisdiction from the state to local agencies, and reinforcing the intent that the DNR will conduct the mapping, but the jurisdictional process will be placed in the hands of counties and local watershed districts.

He added that if local governments don’t accept jurisdiction, it would default to the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR).

The Mower County Soil & Water Conservation District are in the early stages of helping Mower County get in compliance with Minnesota’s 50-foot buffer requirement along public waterways, including the Cedar River.

In March, the district got some good news: The vast majority of Mower County’s agricultural land already complies with the 2015 law seeking to establish buffers and water-quality practices to protect waters from erosion and runoff pollution; stabilize soils, shores and banks; and provide habitat and riparian corridors.

Mapping by the SWC has confirmed that 94.4 percent of the county’s farmland already satisfies the new Minnesota buffer rules. Nearly 100 percent of public ditches in the county also meet the state’s 16.5-foot buffer requirement.

Once all is in compliance, about 5,223 acres will be buffered in Mower. In the Cedar River Watershed District’s portion in Mower County — nearly 234 miles of public waterways — about 95 percent are properly buffered.

The deadline for the public water buffers is November of 2017, while the public ditch deadline is November 2018.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.