The goal of the project is the development of an overall strategy for reduction of turbidity/TSS, with sets of sediment reduction initiatives and actions for various sources, to address the Minnesota River Turbidity TMDL and the South Metro Mississippi River TSS TMDL.
MSU-Mankato Water Resources Center in the Mankato area will provide conventional pollutant monitoring at the following sites: Beauford Ditch, Big Cobb River, Blue Earth River, Le Sueur River (3), Little Cobb River, Minnesota River (2), Watonwan River.
This project will work with the MPCA to conduct watershed pollutant load monitoring at four sites in the Chippewa River watershed and one site in the neighboring Pomme de Terre River watershed . The Chippewa River Watershed Project (CRWP) team will also aid the MPCA in measuring and comparing regional differences and long-term trends in water quality. The goal is to collect quality data and complete load calculations for the five sites using the MPCA's established protocols.
This project will use the We Are Water MN traveling exhibit and the Minnesota Humanities Center's approach to community engagement, relationship building, and storytelling, to increase community capacity for sustainable watershed management in six Minnesota watersheds.
This project will use the We Are Water MN traveling exhibit and the Minnesota Humanities Center's approach to community engagement, relationship building, and storytelling, to increase community capacity for sustainable watershed management in five Minnesota watersheds. The following communities were selected as host sites for this project:
Winona (City of Winona), active hosting period: March 3-April 25, 2022
Lake City (Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance), active hosting period: April 28-June 20, 2022
This project will provide condition monitoring and problem investigation monitoring at the following sites.
Mississippi River: Tributaries include Bassett Creek, Cannon River, Crow River, and Minnehaha Creek.
Minnesota River: Tributaries include Eagle Creek,Riley Creek, and Valley Creek tributary to the St. Croix River
Great River Energy (GRE) operates a power plant in the City of Elk River which generates electricity by incinerating municipal solid wastes. The plant is located proximate to the City of Elk River wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This project will result in a corresponding reduction of groundwater use by GRE.
The goal of this project is to develop and write the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) report for the Blue Earth River Watershed to provide restoration strategies to improve water quality for impaired waters and protection strategies to maintain the quality of water for water bodies meeting standards.
The goal is to facilitate strategic networking, learning, and implementation in targeted groups to assess, build, and leverage community capacity (i.e. community resources and values) to increase best management practice (BMP) adoption to restore and protect water quality in the Blue Earth River watershed
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 involves the extension and update of the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Bois de Sioux and Mustinka watersheds.
This project will develop a watershed approach plan, including impaired waters allocations, for the Mustinka Watershed, located at the headwaters of the Red River of the North, in western Minnesota, lying partly in Grant, Stevens, Ottertail, Big Stone, and Traverse counties. The watershed approach plan will set water quality goals for the watershed, recommend allocations for achieving total maximum daily loads where waters do not meet state standards and are listed as impaired.
The goal of this project is to complete the construction of an Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Buffalo River watershed. Tetra Tech will produce a HSPF watershed model application(s) that will be fully functioning and ready for calibration as part of Phase 2.
This is the second phase of building the Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Buffalo River watershed. The project will result in a completed model including necessary calibration and validation phases.
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 continue to develop, and calibrate/validate the hydrology of an Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Buffalo River watershed. The consultant will add representation of point source discharges to the model. The consultant will compile flow data for the purposes of calibration and validation. An initial hydrologic calibration will be performed and submitted for approval.
The goal of this project is to address public comments on the public noticed draft Watershed Restoration & Protection Strategy (WRAPS) study and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report for the watershed, and to produce a final draft WRAPS study and TMDL report ready for final approval by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
This Surface Water Assessment Grant (SWAG) project is intended to supplement the 2019-2020 Intensive Watershed Monitoring (IWM) process for the Buffalo and Upper Red River of the North watersheds. Nine sites will provide water chemistry and river eutrophication data to the IWM. Monitoring sites were requested by the Buffalo - Red River Watershed District (BRRWD) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
The Villa Park Wetland Restoration Project proposes sediment removal from 6 contiguous stormwater wetland treatment cells within the Villa Park Wetland system resulting in an additional 118lbs/yr of total phosphorus(TP) removal from water entering Lake McCarrons.
The project will include lake monitoring on three (3) lakes found in the Rum River watershed in southeastern Crow Wing County (CWC). The project will be conducted in an effort to gain sufficient data on these data-deficient lake sites. All of the proposed monitoring sites are target sites for 2013-2014. One of the goals of the CWC Local Comprehensive Water Plan (CWP) is to establish a countywide Comprehensive Monitoring Plan (CMP).
The Buffalo River Watershed Pilot Project is one of two pilots in Minnesota designed to develop a watershed approach for managing Minnesota’s surface waters. The goal of this project is to develop a plan that will guide surface water quality management throughout the watershed.
This project will support a civic engagement cohort that will be offered in southwest Minnesota to foster partnering and build capacity of local government, organizations, and residents for effective civic engagement in water protection and restoration. This project will also build networks and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection. The cohort will be administered through the Minnesota River Board (MRB), established in 1995 with a goal of focusing water management efforts on the local level.
This project will complete a comprehensive study, following a rational, step-wise process of data analysis, response modeling and comparison to the water quality standards, followed by impairment diagnosis, modeling of improvement and protection options, and development of a WRAP Report and Implementation Plan for Sunfish lake, Thompson lake, Pickerel lake, and Rogers lake.
This project will develop an understanding for how sediment sources change over timescales of individual storm events as well as over the past two centuries. The results will be used by the larger Collaborative for Sediment Source Reduction (CISSR)-Blue Earth research group to establish a sediment budget for the Greater Blue Earth River Basin and understand the effectiveness of various potential mitigation strategies. In addition, these results can be used by MPCA and others to calibrate watershed sediment models.
This project will complete a pollutant source identification and subwatershed information report and support the development of a Draft Restoration and Protection Plan (RAPP). It will also support the devlopment of a Implementation Plan that will identify target areas for BMP implementation for bacteria reductions.
This project will complete spatial and temporal revisions , recalibration and validation of 7 watershed HSPF models. These fully functioning calibrated validated executable models will simulate hydrology, sediment (sand, silt, and clay), temperature, phosphorus, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and algae at the 12-digit HUC subbasin scale (or finer).
The goal of this project is to develop a phosphorus TMDL for the six impaired lakes in the southwest portion of the Rice Creek Watershed District; Island Lake, Little Lake Johanna, Long Lake, East Moore Lake, Pike Lake and Lake Valentine.
This project will provide the MPCA, CCWD, and all other stakeholders the information and tools necessary to improve the water quality within Coon Creek Watershed District. The improvements will take place using targeted activities throughout the watershed to reduce the primary biological and chemical stressors. In turn, the reduction of these stressors will help to reduce overall loadings of sediment, turbidity, total phosphorus, and E. coli bacteria.
This project will continue the offering of low-interest loans to citizens, some of whom may not be able to acquire funding otherwise, for upgrading 50 septic systems to ensure compliance with state rules. Grant funds will be used to administer the low-interest loan program.
This project will allow for outreach programs to engage interested citizens in protecting 200 acres of riparian buffer in the headwaters of the watershed, accounting for 1860 tons of sediment prevented from reaching surface waters each year the practices remain in place. The desired outcome would include 30 or more participants in the program, and to develop a more extensive volunteer base.
This project will develop a watershed wide Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study and River Eutrophication Standard (RES) TMDL report for water quality impairments in the Des Moines River basin, which includes the Des Moines River Headwaters, Lower Des Moines River, and East Fork Des Moines River watersheds.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate a Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model for Minnesota portions of the Des Moines River watershed.
This project determines ambient background per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) levels in urban and non-urban soils. This information will help Minnesota develop management strategies for PFAS contaminated soils.
The goal of this project is to 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 East Fork Des Moines River watershed.
This project will gather long term watershed data necessary for assessment, stressor identification work, and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) development work for Elm Creek and the Blue Earth Watershed.
River Watch (RW) enhances watershed understanding and awareness for tomorrow’s decision-makers through direct hands-on, field-based experiential watershed science. High School based teams throughout the Minnesota River Basin participate in a variety of unique and innovative watershed engagement opportunities such as Water Quality Monitoring and Macroinvertebrate surveys that are suited to their school, community, and watershed needs.
BWSR will administer funding to eligible County projects that provide funds and other assistance to low income property owners to upgrade or replace Noncompliant Septic Systems. BWSR will also manage annual reporting completed by each County.
This project will maximize the utility and usefulness of three HSPF models that have been constructed and calibrated for hydrology. The contractor will identify and reduce parameterization errors in the following three HSPF models: 1) Buffalo River Watershed, 2 ) Thief River Watershed, 3) Bois de Sioux-Mustinka Watersheds. This will result, not only in a better hydrology calibration, but will also improve each of the models’ ability to more accurately estimate sediment and pollutant loads and concentrations.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate five Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed models. The outcome will be HSPF models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. These models will generate predicted output timeseries for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
