In order to grow the capacity of the organization to preserve and interpret history a consultant was hired by the DCHV to lead selected members and the board through the Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations' (StEPs) self-assessment program.
Lebanon Hills Regional Park, realign visitor center entrance road, improve storm water management including flood mitigation and ecological health of adjacent wetland.
Through the Stormwater Retrofit Partnership, the Dakota Soil and Water Conservation District (DSWCD) provides the funding and technical assistance to prioritize and install Best Management Practices (BMPs) at existing public facilities. This project is needed because, like other urban properties that developed before stormwater regulations, most government owned facilities were designed and constructed without optimal water quality features.
This project will continues the successful 2010 Stormwater Retrofit Partnership. This resulted in the retrofit of 18 sites including eleven bioretention cells and seven snowmelt management areas. These retrofits provided treatment for 28 acres of urban drainage area - reducing total suspended solids, total phosphorus and stormwater volumes.
The Children's Discovery Museum's (CDM) new 3,000 piece Wizard of Oz (WOZ) collection will be properly archived, conservation materials purchased, and exhibit concept and design drawings completed. CDM facilitators and educators will travel to other children's museums in Minnesota for staff enrichment and professional development.
To hire a qualified consultant to develop a structural study that will help preserve the Scriver Building, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Grants to counties to implement SSTS programs including inventories, enforcement, development of databases, and systems to insure SSTS maintenance and of reporting program results to BWSR and MPCA and base grants.
This project will complete the dataset required for assessment of Aquatic Recreation Use at 8 stream sites and 11 lake sites in the Sand Hill Watershed.
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 involves monitoring three data deficient lakes in the Crow Wing River Watershed and one stream site at the inlet to White Earth Lake. The data deficient lakes were on the MPCA Targeted watershed list. After getting the required assessment dataset for these lakes, all targeted lakes in Becker County will be completed for this assessment cycle. The stream site is a site that the White Earth Lake Association and the Becker Coalition of Lake Associations (COLA) will monitor. It is the inlet to White Earth Lake.
This project will obtain lab and field data for waterbodies within the Wild Rice Watershed, to meet surface water assessment goals. Data will continue to be collected further upstream of some 2008 sites and enhance current assessment datasets. Some new tributaries, that lack assessment data, will also be monitored. The project goal is to complete the datasets necessary for the assessment of Aquatic Recreation Use for twelve streams in the Wild Rice Watershed.
This project will collect additional water quality and flow data on tributaries on the South Fork Crow River and Buffalo Creek. Further assessment of these reaches will provide a better understanding of what impacts these tributaries have on the impaired South Fork Crow River and Buffalo Creek.
The Zumbro River Watershed is a major watershed in the Lower Mississippi River basin in SE Minnesota. It includes parts of six counties, covering 910,291 acres. This project will assess all 13 stream reaches in the Zumbro River Watershed to determine if they are meeting their designated uses. The monitoring will entail collecting water chemistry and field parameters.
This project will collect water quality data for 13 Hubbard County lakes located in the Crow Wing priority watershed and identified as priority lakes by the MPCA. Upon completion the project data set will include all of the necessary information for the lakes to be assessed for impairment due to nutrients. Volunteers will collect samples from 7 of the 13 lakes and paid SWCD staff will collect samples from 6 of the lakes that do not have public access or volunteers willing to sample. The water samples will be collected 5 times/year June-September in 2010 and 2011.
This project will obtain a lake data set for Douglas County while fostering lake association participation, ownership, and understanding of their lakes. A better understanding of these lakes is necessary in order to meet goals established in the 2009-2019 Comprehensive Local Water Management Plan and enable 303(d) and 305(b) assessments. Lakes included in this project are: Agnes, Alvin, Blackwell, Brophy, Charley, Cook (Cork), Crooked (East), Crooked (NW), Echo, Henry, Lovera (Lovers), Mina, Round, and Spring.
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.
The goal of this project is to decrease nutrient loading in the lake and rivers within the Swan River Watershed. The Local Water Plan currently identifies surface water contamination and declining water clarity as a priority concern of Todd County. Agency members specifically identified the Swan River Watershed as an area of high priority for restoration efforts. Big Swan Lake is specifically mentioned for its roosting site for purple martins and for the unique wildlife resources it makes available in this subwatershed.
Residents in the Swan River Watershed have become increasingly concerned with their surface water quality. In an effort to reduce excess sediments and pollutants from entering surface waters, the Todd Soil and Water Conservation District will be identifying land owners in priority areas and working with them to install best management practices on lakeshore properties and feedlots within the watershed.Planned projects include: shoreland stabilization and restoration, river and lake bank stabilization, storm water controls, native plantings and livestock waste management projects.
This project will be a joint effort between the Todd Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the Sylvan Shores residents. Todd SWCD will organize and coordinate the project in full partnership with the Sylvan Shores residents. The actual monitoring will be a cooperative effort between Todd SWCD staff and citizen volunteers at Fawn and Pine Island Lakes.
The goal of this project is to reduce the number of vulnerable unused wells located within sensitive areas and to prevent potential groundwater contamination. This project will provide cost-share well sealing funds to target sealing of unused wells located in highly vulnerable areas within both the City of Faribault, and the City of Northfield's Drinking Water Supply Management Areas (DWSMA), and other vulnerable areas of Rice County.
A contractor with knowledge of Site Specific Standard development will respond to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) questions and concerns regarding attainability of standards based on the BATHTUB model data. In addition, they will review technical memorandums developed by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on aquatic life and aquatic recreational standard attainability.
RESPEC is a contractor with knowledge of site-specific standard development and will respond to United States Environmental Protection Agency questions and concerns regarding attainability of standards. The response will be based on bathtub model data and also a review of technical memorandums developed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on aquatic life and aquatic recreational standard attainability.
The Sauk River watershed was selected to participate in the federal Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI) program in 2010 to decrease nutrient contributions to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The MRBI program provides federal cost share funds to landowners to install conservation practices.
