This monitoring project includes lake and stream monitoring and encompasses all of Cass County, and surrounding counties. The project will obtain water quality data for streams; in 2009, lakeshed assessments indicated that many surface waters throughout the county were data deficient. This project will address the need for sufficient data on a county-wide basis and fulfill the State’s intensive watershed monitoring program goals by obtaining water quality data at targeted lake and stream sites.
On behalf of the Metropolitan Council, Environmental Financial Group Inc. generated a matrix of water conservation programs with detailed information about the costs and benefits of the programs. Tools were also developed to allow users to calculate potential water savings, estimate program implementation costs, and test the effects of various water conservation programs and rate structures.
This project will collect a complete Trophic Site Index (TSI) data set for Crow Wing County lakes and a complete data set for streams and rivers for the Intensive Monitoring Program (IMP). Crow Wing County, Cass County, Wadena County, Morrison County and Hubbard County are partnering to ensure that all target lakes and rivers within the Crow Wing River watershed are monitored efficiently.
The Snake River Watershed Management Board (SRWMB), working in concert with other local governmental units in within the watershed, will assist the MPCA, the project consultant, and other members of the Snake River Watershed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) technical team in the completion of tasks associated with this TMDL project. SRWMB, with assistance from members of the technical team (Kanabec Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), Pine SWCD, Aitkin SWCD, and Mille Lacs SWCD) will provide the services to complete this TMDL project.
The Discovery Farms program is a farmer-led effort to gather field-scale water quality information on different types of farms across Minnesota. The three pillars of the program are farmer leadership, credible research, and communicating results.
Phase 4 of the Lake Winona Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project will finalize the draft Lake Winona TMDL, dated November 2009, by completing additional data analysis, lake quality modeling, updating the TMDL report, and supporting the public involvement process.
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 Willow Creek. St. Croix River: Tributary includes Valley Creek.
This project will create a high accuracy elevation dataset - critical for effectively planning and implementing water quality projects - for the state of Minnesota using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and geospatial mapping technologies. Although some areas of the state have been mapped previously, many counties remain unmapped or have insufficient or inadequate data. This multi-year project, to be completed in 2012, is a collaborative effort of Minnesota's Digital Elevation Committee and partners with county surveyors to ensure accuracy with ground-truthing.
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.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
This project will develop an effective transferable model to engage and educate watershed residents, stakeholders and others to better understand and protect watershed ecostystems through environmental monitoring, training, and formal and informal education programs in their local watershed. The project will build on the foundation of the existing Red River Basin River Watch program by strengthening three main activity areas: 1) curriculum integration and teacher training, 2) youth leadership and civic engagement, and 3) applied research collaboration and watershed science skills building.
This project will monitor nine locations in the major watersheds (8-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes) of the Lower Red River Basin. The stream outlet monitoring will provide the water chemistry data needed to calculate annual pollutant loads. Staff from the Red River Watershed Management Board (RRWMB) will conduct the sampling, initially manage the data and provide the data to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for load calculations and import into the STORET data system.
Minnesota's wetlands provide crucial habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife, assist in flood control, and help maintain water quality. However, the state has lost half the wetlands that existed before European settlement and these drained wetlands have not been mapped as part of the National Wetlands Inventory. This appropriation is enabling efforts by Ducks Unlimited to provide a complement to the National Wetlands Inventory by identifying and mapping drained wetlands that have the potential to be restored to provide their various benefits once again.
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 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.
