Lake of the Woods Surface Water Assessment Grant (SWAG)
The Rainy River - Rainy Lake, Rainy River - Baudette and Rapid River Watershed Assessments will include the waters of the Baudette River, Black River, Peppermint Creek, Rapid River, Rat Root River and Winter Road River in Koochiching and Lake of the Woods Counties. This assessment focuses on collection of water chemistry and field parameters at the 12 key sites identified and modified by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Five of the sites will have extra total phosphorus and chlorophyll analysis completed as identified by the MPCA for collecting river nutrients. Four sites will collect sulfate samples for wild rice streams. The Baudette Bay site will only collect E. coli samples and field parameters at a separate location due to the proximity to a local swimming area. In addition to the monitoring, data management and project management, this project will also work to promote volunteer stream monitoring by working with a local River Watch Program that has collected data in the Rainy River-Baudette watershed for the past 10 years. The collaborative effort between the Koochiching and Lake of the Woods Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) and MPCA will utilize experienced staff to obtain comprehensive data of surface waters. This project will support the biological data collected by MPCA and will establish whether these surface waters meet state and federal standards for aquatic life/recreation.
Surface Water Assessment Grants