The Le Sueur River is the bad boy of the Minnesota River Valley.

It’s not known whether it’s just his nature or if it’s how he was raised.

A team of geologists and researchers from across the country are here this summer to try to determine just that.

One thing they do know is that the Le Sueur, along with the Blue Earth River it empties into, carries more dirt particles into the Minnesota than any of the other tributaries in the basin.

Carrie Jennings, with the Minnesota Geological Survey, has long done significant research on the Minnesota River Valley and is one of those participating in the study of the Le Sueur.

The project involves the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota State University, the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Lab and the National Center for Earth Dynamics, part of the National Science Foundation.

With people from universities such as Johns Hopkins, the group is being referred to as a researching “dream team.”

The team has rented a house in Mankato for use as a base.

Sediment hurting aquatic life

Lee Ganske, supervisor of the Minnesota River Basin Watershed unit, based in Mankato, said there are actually two separate but related projects taking place.

One is a biological study, conducted by MPCA staff, of all living creatures in the Le Sueur from tiny invertebrates clinging to rocks, to large fish and turtles.

The university research teams are trying to pinpoint where sediment in the river is coming from.

“In many cases, biologists will find that sites have poor biological conditions because of the sediment. This will bring to a new level the ability to pinpoint some of those sediment sources,” Ganske said.

The impetus for the massive study lies far from the Le Sueur, which wends its way from southeast of Mankato to where it empties in to the Blue Earth River, which flows into the Minnesota at Sibley Park in Mankato. It’s Lake Pepin, hundred miles to the northeast, that is in part pushing officials to solve the mystery of the Le Sueur River.