Pilot Application of New Chemical and Toxicological Tools to Characterize Water Quality Stressors

The main goal of this pilot project is to use cutting-edge biological and data analysis methods to investigate, determine, and report on potential environmental stressors (including contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), adverse outcome pathways (AOPs, i.e., sub-organismal biological mechanisms that link environmental stressor occurrences to adverse organismal outcomes), and biological outcomes in urban surface and stormwater samples. These parameters and environmental matrices are of significant importance to understand and protect aquatic life health and other designated uses in Minnesota surface waters.
The project data and reporting will assist the State, regulators, researchers, and other stakeholders by providing highly detailed information on potential stressors, stressor sources, and biological mechanisms of stress to a pilot study area that includes a biologically stressed water body for which the stressor or other causative elements have not previously been satisfactorily or conclusively explained.