The LeSueur River has been identified as one of the leading contributors of sediment to the Minnesota River. A majority of this sediment has been determined to come from the banks, bluffs and ravines located along the river. This project focuses on a one mile reach of the LeSueur River where stream channel migration and mass wasting are significantly eroding four bluffs. Two township roads and many houses are in danger of falling into the river.
The AHS hired part-time, temporary staff to input data into their PastPerfect collections management system. This was Phase II of a cataloging project and the data had been gathered during Phase I of the project. AHS exceeded their goal by cataloging more than the estimated 1393 objects.
This project will provide Soil and Water Conservation Districts the opportunity to nominate an individual, business, company, municipality or organization for their concern, cooperation and/or implementation of conservation practices in a community environment. This award recognizes nominees that have excelled in a variety of categories which include: storm water management; land use conservation planning and implementation, and leadership relating to community conservation practices.
The DNR Gateway to the Outdoors Initiative is a department-wide effort to stem the decline in outdoor recreation participation, and connect people to the outdoors through the use of Minnesota State Parks and Trails.
This project builds on the success of Cook Soil and Water Conservation District's (SWCD) 2012 Clean Water Assistance grant, to provide sub-grants to landowners and community partners in the Lake Superior Basin, to implement rain gardens (or bio-retention basins) to reduce the stormwater footprint on Lake Superior. It is projected that 4 to 5 rain gardens could be completed, providing stormwater treatment to approximately 18 to 30 acres in the Cook County.
The Lower Mississippi River Feedlot Management in MN project will be leveraging State funding from BWSR to provide match for a United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) Regional Conservations Partners Program (RCPP). BWSR will provide technical and financial assistance to plan and design projects to mitigate feedlot runoff from smaller (less than 300 animal units or AUs*), open lot feedlots in southeastern Minnesota.
Within an 11-county area in southeastern Minnesota, two Nutrient Management Specialists will work directly with producers to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and fecal coliform runoff into surface and ground water in the region and the Mississippi River. The specialists will help producers create or revise nutrient management plans, implement Best Management Practices for manure and fertilizer use, and set up on-farm demonstration projects to support farmer-to-farmer learning.
Pope County Ditch 6 (CD 6) is an 18 mile channelized watershed and a primary tributary to Ashley Creek. CD6 and Ashley Creek are impaired for bacteria, dissolved oxygen and aquatic organisms. This project will address the storm water runoff concerns identified within this public drainage system in conjunction with repairs scheduled for 2017-2018. Alternative intake structures to manage nutrients and other practices, such as water and sediment control basins, will be installed to retain water on the upland properties and minimize flow rate and velocity.
Capitol Region Watershed District will partner with local organizations and private landowners to implement a variety of cost-effective Best Management Practices in the East Kittsondale subwatershed. The urbanized condition of the 1,860 acre subwatershed results in an estimated 1,500 pounds of phosphorus, over 470,000 pounds of sediment, and significant concentrations of bacteria associated with that sediment being sent untreated to the Mississippi River each year. Those pollutants have contributed to several impairments within the river.
The Southwest Prairie Technical Service Area 5 (SWPTSA), located in the southwest corner of Minnesota, encompasses 11 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs): Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac Qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, and Yellow Medicine. This project will protect natural resources within the three major river basins of Minnesota, Missouri and Des Moines Rivers. The SWPTSA will assist member SWCDs in locating and identifying priority subwatersheds that have soil erosion and water quality issues using terrain analysis.
Pope Soil and Water Conservation District, partnered with Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and landowners, will install 22 targeted water and sediment control structures in two priority subwatersheds (Trappers Run and Minnewaska). These structures have the potential to reduce sediment load by 514 tons per year, and phosphorus by 440 pounds per year.
DNR regional clean water specialists and area hydrologists work with local partners to provide technical assistance on implementation projects and related outreach, resulting in cleaner water through healthier watersheds, shorelands and floodplains. We help partners identify, develop, target, design and/or implement on-the-ground projects that improve water quality, enhance habitat and protect infrastructure. We help design restorations that provide lasting benefits by mimicking features of healthy ecosystems.
This project continues water plan activities from a 2007 Clean Water Legacy grant and initiates a multi-county project to restore hydrology and water quality in an impaired trout stream.The first goal of this project is to reduce the impacts of animal manure and fertilizer on surface and groundwater by installing low cost feedlot improvements and targeted manure management planning.
The primary objective of this workplan is to demonstrate the ability of the City of Paynesville to meet the current and future wastewater treatment needs and achieve beneficial use of wastewater effluent, to replace the use of groundwater.
The Afton Historical Society (AHS) staff performed a wall-to-wall baseline inventory of 10,020 items, counting and locating each item. This number includes all components of 6206 line items documented on the inventory forms. Items inventoried include materials from the permanent collections, historical property that originated with the building, and consumable items/materials used in programming (PUMs) or for education.
This project will evaluate and prioritize approximately 13,000 lineal feet of Lake Koronis shoreline for shoreline erosion and vegetative buffer condition. Those property owners with the most erosion, stormwater and vegetative buffer issues will be targeted to stabilize, infiltrate and buffer their shoreline. This project will also evaluate an additional 300 properties in the subcatchment area and target those properties that are best able to capture and treat stormwater from impervious surfaces.
US Geological Survey-MN Water Science Center will complete laboratory analysis of groundwater samples for endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and other emerging contaminants of interest, including organic waste water compounds, pharmaceuticals, and endrocrine active compounds, and report results. MPCA staff will complete sample collection tasks. The USGS National Water Quality Laboratory and the Kansas Water Science Center Laboratory will perform the laboratory analyses.
The Lake St. Croix Rural Subwatershed Project Implementation Clean Water Fund Grant will allow the Washington Conservation District and its partners to carry out the implementation of 8-10 of the top 50 highly ranked conservation projects already identified in the Top50P! rural subwatershed analysis. Implementation of the conservation practices will work towards achieving an estimated 80-160 pounds of phosphorus load reduction to Lake St. Croix.
Little Rock Creek, a cold-water trout stream in central Minnesota, is impaired due to the lack of trout and other cold water fish. The trout are absent because of high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen and high nitrate levels, stressors caused from a lack of base flow and overuse of groundwater. This project continues a 2011 initiative to assist irrigators in the Little Rock Creek groundwater recharge area with managing the timing and amount of irrigation applied to their crops.
The 11th Grade English and Social Studies students of Windom Area High School (WAHS), the Cottonwood County Historical Society (CCHS), and the American Legion (AL) Post #206 developed a project centered on collecting the experiences of living war Veterans by interviewing, writing, publishing in book format, and promoting the stories of Veterans from CC who have served in the military.
The goal of this project is to develop a Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan (WRAPS) to be used at the local level. It will increase the number of citizens participating in education and outreach events; foster information and idea exchange around watershed issues through relationships and social networks; involve community members in crafting civic engagement activities/plans in which they feel ownership and desire to implement; and promote awareness, concern, and watershed stewardship to community organizations/institutions.
The goal of this project is to establish a framework that the local government can use to guide their involvement as the UMR Watershed Project progresses over the next four years. This will result in strategies to protect or restore the waters in this watershed. These strategies will be used as the basis for making informed local water quality and land use planning decisions, as well as development of grant applications to implement the restoration and protection of waters in the UMR watershed.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.The ambient groundwater monitoring network describes the current condition and trends in Minnesota's groundwater quality.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA Environmental Assistance and Outcomes staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.The ambient groundwater monitoring network describes the current condition and trends in Minnesota's groundwater quality.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.The ambient groundwater monitoring network describes the current condition and trends in Minnesota's groundwater quality.
The 400-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from its headwaters at Lake Itasca to Morrison County near Little Falls is the focus of this project. Working in cooperation with the eight member counties, this project will develop implementation plans and strategies geared specifically for the Mississippi River and incorporate them into the individual County Comprehensive Local Water Plans. These recommendations will be for specific strategies, often crossing county boundaries for implementation.
The language and cultural needs of the American Indian community in the Twin Cities urban area are high. Additionally, the urban area has Dakota and Ojibwe tribal members, as well as, other tribal members.
The contractor will provide 4 day-long training sessions for the Scenario Analysis Manager (SAM) and 2 Processing Application Tool for HSPF (PATH) sessions. The SAM tool’s framework currently consists of a pre-processor (PATH) for interactively translating HSPF model application files, a Geographic Information System (GIS) for best management practice (BMP) site selection, a BMP database with pollutant removal efficiencies and associated costs, and scenario analysis, optimization, and reporting capabilities.
Nitrate-nitrogen (nitrate) is one of the contaminants of greatest concern for groundwater in Minnesota. This funding is being used for activities that help identify the severity and magnitude of nitrate contamination and implement practices at the local level to reduce nitrate in groundwater. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is working with many local partners and passing funding through to local government units (counties, cities, soil and water conservation districts) to address this concern.
Stearns County Ditch 26 (CD 26) is a 20 mile channelized section of Getchell Creek, a primary tributary to the Sauk River that is impaired for turbidity, E.coli and aquatic macroinvertebrate bio-assessment. The Stearns County Ditch 26 Drainage Management Project will address the stormwater runoff concerns identified within this public drainage system. Alternative intake structures to manage nutrients and mitigative measures will be taken to retain water on the upland properties and minimize flow rate and velocity.
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.
National Register of Historic Places nomination preparation and a management plan for the 47-acre Two Points property on Ottertail Peninsula, Leech Lake. Included is a spatial analysis of physical artifacts, researching documentation of the site, creating and annotating maps, taking photos and completing the nomination form with attachments and bibliography.
Veterans' Voices: Native Warriors will give Native American students in Minnesota the opportunity to hear memories and stories directly from Native American veterans from within their communities. Funds will also be used to create radio segments featuring the Native American veterans sharing their personal experiences in their own words. These segments will air statewide and be archived online giving all Minnesotans access now and in the future.
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).
The Nobles Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and Nobles County Environmental Services will complete Level III feedlot inventories with manure management plan reviews through portions of the Rock River Watershed located within Nobles County. There are 133 registered feedlots in the Rock River Watershed portion of Nobles County including 62 open lots and 7 within shoreland. Rock County has completed level III feedlot inventories through the Rock River Watershed within Rock County borders.
Twelve northwestern MN museums joined together to form the Minnesota's Historic Northwest group. The group, which includes: Beltrami, Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Norman, Lake of the Woods, Roseau, Pennington, Red Lake, Polk County Historical Societies, the East Polk heritage Center and the McIntosh Arts and Heritage Center collaborated to purchase supplies and to conduct workshops about artifact storage.
The division is contracting for services under the strategic program objectives of the Legacy fund. This project aims to assist the division through work under Accelerated Natural Resource Management objective
Crow Wing County, in cooperation with the municipalities within the County, plans to continue its successful well sealing program that pays 50% of the cost to seal unused/abandoned wells up to a maximum of $1000 per well. The amount of funding requested is $31,000 which is estimated to allow for the sealing of 80-100 wells. From 2012 to 2015, Crow Wing County sealed 65 wells as part of an earlier MDH well sealing grant from the Clean Water Fund. Priority will be given to wells located in or near existing wellhead protection areas.
