The primary goal of this project is to accurately collect surface water quality data to help support the MPCA’s Intensive Watershed Monitoring efforts in the Lake Superior North Watershed.
This project will accelerate production of County Geologic Atlases (part A). An atlas is a set of geologic maps and associated databases for a county that facilitate informed management of natural resources, especially water and minerals.
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.
This project will address United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comments on the preliminary draft Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) comments on the pre-public notice draft TMDL study and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) report, and produce the public notice draft TMDL study and the public notice draft WRAPS report ready for public review and comment. Conduct one public meeting for each watershed to present public notice drafts of the TMDL study and WRAPS report for each 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).
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 goal of this project is to develop and complete the Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) process and report, while also enlarging and sustaining a public participation process that encourages local ownership of water quality problems and solutions (civic engagement).
Civic engagement strategies including education public participation in watershed work and expanded knowledge, technical input into and review of stressor id process and report, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reports, implementation plans and protecion strategies.
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 the collection and analysis of sediment core samples, from each of the five bays ( Little Traverse, Big Traverse, Muskeg, Sabaskong and 4-Mile Bays), to ensure adequate characterization of the P fluxes from deposited sediment and equilibrium P fluxes from re-suspended sediment.
This project will provide fiscal resources for South St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District (SSLCSWCD) to participate and lead efforts to attain geomorphic data sets, dissolved oxygen assessments, culvert inventory, and civic engagement activities in three major watersheds, Nemadji River, South Lake Superior and St. Louis River. This work is currently being worked on as a part of the MPCA’s Watershed Restoration and Protection Planning efforts.
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 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 set water quality goals for the Minnesota portions of the watershed, recommend allocations for achieving total maximum daily loads where waters do not meet Minnesota state standards and are listed as impaired, and recommend management strategies for those Minnesota waters meeting state standards. This project also recognizes that as monitoring continues in the watershed, additional impairments may be identified.
Civic engagement is the primary goal of this project and will focus on 1) building knowledge about the watershed approach among Lake Superior-North watershed residents, 2) building a communication network to exchange knowledge, 3) building a sense of shared concern about watershed related issues through events, workshops, forums or other organized activities, and 4) building a trusted foundation for future water related work among a group of new collaborators.
This project will construct, calibrate, a set of HSPF watershed models covering the entire area of the Lake of the Woods drainage, including the Rainy River watershed. The consultant will produce HSPF models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. The consultant will clearly demonstrate that these models generate predicted output timeseries for hydrology which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
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 construct, calibrate, and validate an HSPF watershed model for the Lake of the Woods River watershed. The consultants will produce HSPF watershed models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. The consultants will clearly demonstrate that the models generate predicted output time series for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen that are consistent with available sets of observed data.
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.
The Discovery Farms program is a farmer-led effort to gather information on soil and nutrient loss on farms in different settings across Minnesota. The mission of Discovery Farms Minnesota is to gather water quality information under real-world conditions.
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.
The goal of this project is to complete the calibration/validation process of Hydrologic Simulation FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed models for the Lake of the Woods/Rainy River Basin.
This project will gather watershed data necessary for the development of a comprehensive watershed management plan with parameter-specific thresholds that will maintain or improve water quality for the Kawishiwi Watershed.
Project between Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and United States Army Corp of Engineers at Knowlton Creek Watershed to address a large amount of sediment deposited into the St. Louis River Area of Concern (AOC).
The goal of this project is to assess and leverage the capacity for the local community to engage in the process of watershed management in the Lake Superior Basin within Lake County and to adopt protection and restoration practices.
The main purpose of this project is to provide fiscal resources for Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District (Lake County SWCD) to be engaged and participate in efforts for civic engagement in the Lake Superior South (LS South) Lake Superior North (LS North) watersheds and lead and carry-out civic engagement in the early stages of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) process in the Cloquet River watershed.
This project provides fiscal resources for Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District for civic engagement activities in the Lake Superior South, North, and Cloquet watersheds for Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS). This project also includes provide funding for water chemistry monitoring assistance and diagnostic field work that will fill identified monitoring gaps and stressors within the Lake Superior South watershed.
This project will support the collection of water-quality samples and gauge streamflow near the mouths of the Rainy and Warroad Rivers; collect water-quality samples at 10 sites in LOW; and measure streamflow velocities and cross-sectional areas of 5 channel constrictions in LOW.
This project will gather watershed data necessary for the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy to maintain or improve water quality within the LoW Watershed; and establish project and sub-basin work groups and/or focus groups to guide the MWRPP process.
With a perceived increase in the frequency and intensity of cyanobacterial algal blooms in Lake of the Woods (LOW), there has been an increased effort to collect information about the nature of algal blooms, nutrient concentrations and sources of nutrients to the LOW.
This project will provide a protocol for prioritizing sites in the St. Louis Area of Concern (AOC ) for restoration based on site-specific bioavailability considerations. Despite large data collection efforts focused on sediment chemistry, the extent to which sediment with moderate levels of contamination is available for uptake into biota and therefore contributing to Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI)s is still largely unknown.
The St. Louis River Area of Concern (SLRAOC) conservation partners are focused on removing Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI) in the estuary and eventually delisting the SLRAOC. Cooperative efforts between multiple resource agencies and regional stakeholders have identified a host of restoration objectives, developed project support activities, and partially secured funding that includes a state commitment through the Minnesota Clean Water Fund.
The St. Louis River Area of Concern (SLRAOC) conservation partners are focused on removing Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI) in the estuary and eventually delisting the SLRAOC. Cooperative efforts between multiple resource agencies and regional stakeholders have identified a host of restoration objectives, developed project support activities, and partially secured funding that includes a state commitment through the Minnesota Clean Water Fund.
This project will provide technical, planning and engineering assistance to the MPCA for the development and implementation of the St. Louis River Remedial Action Plan (RAP). USACE and USEPA in partnership with the MPCA will administer work plans to complete a sediment assessment for Minnesota areas within Superior Bay, St. Louis Bay, Lower St. Louis River and the Upper St. Louis River, encompassing approximately 5,349 acres of the St. Louis River and Estuary.
The goal of this project is to analyze and document database architecture, platform, table structures, systems and data fields at six Minnesota agencies (Board of Soil and Water Resources, Department of Natural Resources, MN Department of Agriculture, MN Department of Health, Metropolitan Council, and MN Pollution Control Agency) for 30+ databases related to water.
This project will finalize the Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model construction and complete the calibration/validation process. The consultant will produce an HSPF watershed model that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. The consultant will clearly demonstrate that this model generates predicted output timeseries for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
