This project will collect data for 8 lakes and 4 stream sites in 2010 and 2011. The lakes included in this project have little or no data, or are lakes where citizens have asked for monitoring assistance.
This project will utilize eight surface water sites in the Redeye River Watershed to collect chemical samples and complete field analysis that will be helpful in determining the health of the streams in the watershed. The Redeye River Watershed contains three main rivers (Red Eye, Leaf, and Wing) that drain to the Crow Wing River and ultimately to the Mississippi River. Main concerns in this watershed are low dissolved oxygen levels, excess sediment, increased drainage and flow alterations, and high bacteria levels.
As part of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA's) watershed monitoring Approach, the Washington Conservation District will collect water quality samples on three lakes in the Lower St. Croix River Watershed in 2019-20; Comfort Lake, Square Lake, and Big Marine Lake. Rural and agricultural land uses are major components of all three lakes' subwatersheds and semi-urban land use is present in the Comfort lake subwatershed.
This provides a project manager to work with regulated parties to identify new or more efficient ways of meeting standards at wastewater treatment facilities (municipal and industrial).
Implementing the outcomes of our past project to research optimization activities in Minnesota wastewater ponds. This project will employ technical assistance and grant funds to improve nutrient removal and performance.
This project will collect water samples at seventeen monitoring locations ranging in size from 23,173 acres (7 Mile Creek) to over 9 million acres (Minnesota River at St. Peter) as a part of the Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network (WPLMN). The Minnesota State University - Water Resources Center (WRC) has been directly involved with the program and is familiar with the streams and hydrology of the region. In addition to monitoring, the WRC will review, manage and submit the data in formats provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
The goal of this project is to develop guidance for water quality parameter evaluation and calibration for Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) applications focused on dissolved oxygen (D.O.), nutrient, and algal simulation, along with a demonstration of the guidance by step-by-step application to D.O.-impaired Minnesota watersheds.
This is a joint project between the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), North Dakota, and Manitoba. The project is a basin-wide, up-to-date water quality trend analysis using the "QWTrend" program for approximately 40 bi-national river sites to review nutrients, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, sulfate and chloride from 1980 - 2015.
Tetra Tech will work to support the science needed when planning in Minnesota for water storage practice implementation. The goal is to provide practical water storage recommendations that can be incorporated into smaller scale planning within major watersheds (HUC 8), as well as larger scale planning for the Sediment Reduction Strategy for the Minnesota River and South Metro Mississippi River.
Vermilion Community College will assist the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) with meeting the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) development objectives of collecting data and completing watershed assessments for the Rainy River Headwaters, Vermilion River, and Little Fork River watersheds. Services will include providing support for field water monitoring, other field sampling and measurements and related field data management, analysis, and assessments in these watersheds.
There are several models and tools that State agencies, university staff, and local government staff utilize to measure outcomes for pollution reduction benefits in agricultural watersheds in Minnesota. The mechanisms and scales at which these tools are built on are slightly to drastically different.
In conjunction with the Watonwan Major Watershed Project engagement process, create a contact strategy for community/landowner opportunities, obstacles, and opinions on land management and water quality that will result in the identification of restoration and protection strategies for the Watonwan River watershed.
Develop a network of informed citizens, business people, community leaders and others capable of acting collectively to get work done in a sustained, strategic and meaningful way through a sense of shared ownership in the water resource management process.
Locating the sources of sediment, phosphorus, and bacteria is integral to reducing the effect they have on a water body. The completion of the West Fork Des Moines River (WFDMR) Targeting and Prioritizing Endeavor will result in a set of data that is the most cost-effective for the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for all identified priority resources. The results will be expressed as the maximum reduction of a water quality contaminant (e.g. sediment, phosphorus, bacteria) at a priority resource (e.g. an impaired stream) for a given level of investment.
The goal of this project is to establish a framework that the local government can use to guide their involvement as the WFDMR Watershed Project progresses over the next four years. This will enhance the success of the overarching goal of providing a framework for which the local government and watershed organizations can engage the public in a manner that will lead to water quality improvement. This will result in strategies to protect or restore the waters in this watershed.
This monitoring work expands on previously established routine water quality and flow sampling to include extensive fish and aquatic invertebrate surveys. Subsequent steps include assessment of the monitoring data to determine impairments, identification of stressors that are causing impairments, development of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies using identification of pollutant sources using computer modeling and other techniques, civic engagement, and public education as approaches in progress towards water quality goals.
This project will apply science to identify viable and priority wetland restorations and rehabilitations that will deliver sustainable water quality benefit, along with flood storage and habitat benefits. Decision tools will be developed to assist with selection of restoration projects.
This project will support the operation and maintenance of a stream gage that records stage, index-velocity and water temperature at Wheeler's Point on the Rainy River. The USGS will visit the stream gage approximately every six (6) weeks to perform maintenance and, as needed, to define the range of flows that occur.
Project outcomes include results from hydroponics experiments, which will likely consist of information on the response of wild rice growth to a range of concentrations of sulfate, sulfide, and various cations. Results from these experiments will be used to help determine what additional research is needed in 2013. The MPCA will use this data to evaluate the current sulfate standard and the need, if any, for modifications to it.
Project outcomes include data that will ultimately allow the MPCA to quantitatively compare the environmental conditions (surface water and sedimentary geochemistry) at sites that successfully support wild rice growth to sites that do not support wild rice. These data, in particular the analysis of the porewater samples obtained under this project, will be compared to the results from a separate project that will assess the growth of wild rice using hydroponic methods.
The MPCA is currently collecting additional information needed to evaluate the 10 mg/liter wild-rice-based sulfate standard and has received funding through legislation passed during the 2011 Special Session to implement a wild rice research plan and contract with scientific experts to further understand the effects of sulfate on the growth of wild rice. The goal of this project is to determine responses of wild rice to sulfate and the products of geochemical transformations of sulfate.
The goal of this project is to collect and analyze samples from lake, stream, wild rice paddy, and experimental field sites across a spectrum of sulfate concentrations and wild rice plant abundance. The scientific information developed will be part of the evidence used by the MPCA in its decision as to whether or not a change to the existing sulfate standard is necessary, and if so, what the revised standard should be.
The MPCA is undertaking a study to investigate the potential effects of elevated sulfate on the growth of wild rice. One high-priority hypothesis is that the conversion of sulfate to sulfide in anoxic subsurface sediment may harm the roots of wild rice, either directly, or indirectly. The goal of this project is To observe and develop an understanding of exposure of wild rice roots to changes in concentration of sulfide and related chemicals over time and space (depth of sediment and distance from roots).
This project will provide lab analyses and interpretation required for 2012 wild rice field survey. The 2012 lab analyses will be merged with the 2011 field survey data and determine what additional work, if any, is needed during the 2013 field season.
The MDH Environmental Laboratory provides essential analyses of water for the MPCA Wild Rice Standards Study, which is gathering information about the effects of sulfate on the growth of wild rice. For this study, the lab developed a ultra-sensitive test for hydrogen sulfide, which greatly facilitated the research. For this large study, the lab staff analyzed several thousand water and sediment samples from lakes, wetlands, rivers, rice paddies, experimental mesocosms, and hydroponic experiments.
Phase 2 of the Wild Rice River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project includes: continued civic engagement; production of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study, which allocates pollutant load reductions for impaired waters; and production of the WRAPS report, which identifies implementation strategies that will maintain or improve water quality in many lakes and streams throughout the watershed.
Assesss current data sources and preliminary information about the conditions in the watershed and present the information through bibliographies, abstracts and memos.
The WinLaC Prioritization and Public Participation Project will identify priority water quality issues and concerns for the watershed approach in the Mississippi River - Winona and La Crescent watersheds. Information obtained from this project will help develop the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) Update report as well the WinLaC Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan.
This project will continue the development of a Pre-Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) assessment, evaluation, community outreach and involvement, and development project that will provide for a comprehensive and more successful watershed restoration approach.
This project will produce a final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report and Watershed Restoration and Projection Strategy (WRAPS) reports for the Winnebago and Mississippi River – La Crescent watersheds including the drafting of public notice versions of the reports, responding to comments during the public notice period and producing the final TMDL and WRAPS reports.
This project will produce a Winter Maintenance Assessment tool prototype that allows users to create a customized approach to modify their existing winter maintenance program that will reduce their road salt use. The tool will allow users to take inventory of their current practices and evaluate how they are doing today and where they have the most potential to reduce salt usage.
The goal of this project is to maintain and make enhancements to the Winter Maintenance Assessment tool (WMAt), which is a necessary technical resource and planning tool for stakeholders and permittees to implement the chloride reduction strategies described in the Chloride Management Plan. The WMAt is critical for assisting stakeholders in meeting the water quality goals of the Chloride Management Plan without compromising public safety, and allowing for consideration of the varying resources and conditions for each individual winter maintenance program.
The goal of this project is the development of an automated planning tool to complete the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Chloride Watershed Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS).
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) requires the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to carry out the Total Maximum Daily Load Program (TMDL) in the state of Minnesota. Minnesota has an abundance of lakes and river reaches, many of which will require a TMDL study. In an effort to expedite the completion of TMDL projects, the MPCA has decided to construct watershed models. These models have the potential to support the simultaneous development of TMDL studies for multiple listings within a cataloging unit or 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code watershed.
This project will monitor four lakes and 18 stream sites within the Yellow Medicine River Watershed to collect surface water quality data to determine the health of the watershed's streams and lakes and if they are in need of restoration or protection strategies. The sites will be monitored according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) Water Monitoring Standard Operating Procedures.
This project will train MPCA field staff in the proper calibration, deployment, maintenance and storage of water quality collection Sondes. Training event will cover general sonde overview, sonde maintenance, calibration procedure, short-term storage, long-term storage and 650MDS overview.
Trained staff will help assure the water chemistry data that is collected is of good quality. After the 1 day training events participants will be able to calibrate sonde water quality monitoring sensors in a lab or field setting, deploy the calibrated sonde to collect water chemistry, store sondes properly during non-field season and perform preventative maintenance or simple troubleshooting actions with the help of tech support. This will be satisfied by two different training events held in 2017.
