The Metropolitan Council was awarded $1,250,000 from Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment funds for a Water Efficiency Grant Program during the Minnesota Legislature's 2021 First Special Session. The Metropolitan Council (Council) implemented a water efficiency grant program effective July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024. Grants were awarded on a competitive basis to municipalities that are served by a municipal water system. The Council provides 80% of the program cost; the municipality must provide the remaining 20%.
The Metropolitan Council, in conjunction with CDM Smith consultants, undertook a project to collect and disseminate data regarding water costs and conservation programs in the seven-county metropolitan area, including:
• Evaluating all water rate structures of the communities in the seven-county metro area. The information on rates by community is correlated with community per capita values, peaking ratios, and other water use characteristics.
• Evaluating all water conservation programs in the communities in the seven-county metro area.
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.
The Watonwan Watershed Technician will provide highly focused targeting of conservation programs and practices. The technician will enhance current staff capabilities in the Watonwan watershed by collecting landowner contact information from previous studies and GIS methods, produce mass mailings about funding opportunities, and meet one-on-one with landowners to discuss their conservation concerns. The technician will implement 45 projects/practices over a three year period.
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.
The Watonwan Watershed Resource Specialist has been funding with Clean Water funds since 2012. Since that time, the Watonwan Watershed Resource Specialist has been a crucial connector between landowners and natural resource professionals in the Watonwan Watershed. As the technical ability and responsibilities of the WWRS expands, the need and urgency to secure extended funding becomes a priority. This project will fund half of the Watonwan Watershed Research Specialist position through year 2020.
With the completion of LiDAR data in southern Minnesota, it is imperative to use this data as effectively as possible. In order to do so, the Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA) will contract with a vendor to complete a Geographic Information System (GIS) terrain analysis in subsheds of the Watonwan River watershed. This inventory will utilize the State of Minnesota LiDAR elevation datasets to create many GIS datasets by spatially analyzing the elevation data.
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.
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.
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.
In partnership with the City of Coon Rapids, the Coon Creek Watershed District will address Coon Creek's aquatic life and recreation impairments by reducing nutrient and bacteria loading attributable to stormwater runoff from an 822-acre urban catchment. The project will retrofit an existing in-line rate control pond with a large iron-enhanced sand filter bench to target dissolved phosphorus, reducing TP loading to Coon Creek by 69 pounds per year. It will also incorporate bio-char into the filter media mixture to reduce E.
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.
