All Projects

This project will complete a Acetochlor Impairment Response Report. This report will combine and coordinate information relating to actions being done in direct response to the acetochlor water quality impairments with those being done and support MDA’s on-going responsibility to assure pesticides are used in a manner that does not cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.

This project will provide additional monitoring data to be utilized in the watershed assessment process for the Le Sueur River Watershed Project. Monitoring will take place for an additional year at two sites along the Maple River.

This project will identify priority management zones (PMZ), for the purposes of water quality restoration and protection, within the LeSueur River major watershed. This project is only one component of a larger effort in the LeSueur watershed to complete Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies while engaging citizens and landowners in land management planning.

This project will apply the Sunrise River watershed computer model generated under previous projects to selected scenarios of land-cover and land-management changes. The watershed model calibrated to conditions in the late 1990s will form the initial baseline against which all other model runs will be contrasted. Scenarios to be run will include changes in future land cover, agricultural practices, urban practices, and natural resource management.

This project will further assess the water quality within Brown County by monitoring its rivers, streams, ditches and other waterbodies. This project will also be working in cooperation with individual volunteers to perform grab samples and visual assessments of seven waterbodies throughout Brown County.

This project will assess the condition of ten tributary streams in the Blakeley Bluff region of Scott County. The selected tributaries all discharge directly into the the Minnesota River, which is impaired for fecal coliform and turbidity.

This project will assess lakes and streams in the Cannon River watershed that have not been assessed to determine if they are meeting their designated uses. Some of these lakes and streams have data for certain pollutants, but not enough to complete an impairment assessment. The river and stream reaches are located in Dakota, Goodhue, Le Sueur, Rice, Steele, and Waseca counties. The lakes are located throughout the Cannon watershed (Le Sueur, Rice and Waseca Counties). This project will be a continuation of past assessments conducted in 2007 and 2009.

This project will collect water chemistry and field parameters at the Popple River, Bowstring River, Big Fork River, Rice River, Caribou Lake and Eagle lake. It will also support the biological assessments being completed by MPCA staff for this Target Watershed Assessment. This project is a collaborative effort with MPCA, 3 SWCDs, and the well established Bigfork River Watch Program. This project is a collaborative effort with Lake of the Woods and Koochiching County SWCDs because the Big Fork Watershed encompasses both Itasca and Koochiching Counties.

This assessment will be performed using scientific volunteers, will build capacity at a technical training program at Itasca Community College (ICC), and will provide MPCA with answers providing a reasonable expectation for water quality in this under-studied region of Minnesota.

Rice County Water Resources Division will complete a Surface Water Assessment for six lakes located in the Cannon River Watershed. The lakes chosen include: Sprague Lake (66-0045-00), Mud Lake (66-0054-00), Hatch Lake (66-0063-00), Pooles Lake (66-0046-00), Logue Lake (66-0057-00), and Phelps Lake (66-0062-00). Each lake chosen is currently unassessed, and both Sprague and Mud lake are priority lakes for testing. Sampling will include testing dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, Secchi, Total phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a. The samples will be taken by volunteers and paid staff.

This project will complete a chloride management plan which will lay out a strategy for addressing chloride impacts to our surface waters for the 7-county metropolitan area. This chloride management plan will satisfy EPA requirements for impaired waters, address waters not yet listed, and develop a strategy to protect waters that are currently meeting the water quality standards.

This project will provide the MPCA and all local partners in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) the information and tools necessary to improve and/or maintain water quality with respect to chloride for the 7-county metropolitan area during the winter maintenace period.

This project will provide modeling services to support the completion of the Typo Lake and Martin Lake Excess Nutrients TMDL report. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report quantifies pollutant levels, identifies sources of pollution, and proposes ways to bring water quality back to an acceptable level.

This project is for the editing the draft Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reports resulting from comments received from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff, preparing the documents for public notice, assisting with responding to public comments and preparing the final documents for final federal and state approval.

The purpose of this project is to gather data specific to developing a site-specific standard for phosphorus for Upper and Lower Red Lakes. These are large shallow lakes that are located in an area where no shallow lake standard exists. Because of these lakes' unique characteristics, it is believed that a site-specific standard is more appropriate than the deep lake standards that currently exist. This project will include additional chemistry and flow monitoring of tributaries to the lakes, as well as outflow of Lower Red Lake to the Red Lake River.

This project will provide the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and analyze relevant data, identify pollutant sources, hold a stakeholder meeting, and gather information towards the future development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan.

The goal of this project is to gather and collect necessary watershed data for the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) for the Upper/Lower Red Lakes Watershed that includes impairments, their causes, and plans for restoration. Implementation of the WRAPS will maintain or improve water quality for the watershed.

This project will support the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and relevant data, continue identification of pollutant sources, complete load duration curves, coordinate and encourage participation in stakeholder meetings. The information gathered during Phase IIB will be utilized towards the development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan (Plan).

This project will develop a watershed restoration plan that provides quantitative pollutant load reduction estimates and a set of pollutant reduction and watershed management strategies to achieve water quality standards for all impairments within the watershed. It will also an important framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication, which will contribute to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities throughout the watershed.

This project will collect up to one year of water quality and stream flow information on Kelle’s Coulee to aid in the development of the Valley Branch Watershed District Restoration and Protection study. The information being collected by the Washington Conservation District will be used in developing the models necessary to complete the TMDL for Kelle’s Coulee.

The VRWJPO is pursuing a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project in cooperation with the MPCA in order to better identify the sources of stress and impairment to the river, tributaries, and lakes and evaluate the feasibility of reaching water quality goals, and properly allocating pollution reduction goals to those areas identified as likely pollution sources. Successful restoration and protection outcomes are dependent on successful community building and ownership of both the problems and solutions identified in the WRAPS.

The goal is to develop the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) and a public and stakeholder participation process that encourages local involvement in water quality discussions and solutions, identifying impaired waters, developing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs); and planning, setting priorities, and implementing the WRAPS recommendation to restore impaired waters. Phase II of the WRAPS will consists of developing TMDLs for the impaired reaches as well as developing the final WRAPS document and implementation planning.

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).

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.

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.

This project will collect water quality data at Zavoral Creek over a two year period.