The goal of this project is to perform water quality monitoring and load calculation duties to accomplish MPCA's Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network monitoring efforts at seven sites for the Redwood and Cottonwood River watersheds as well as the Minnesota River site near Morton.
This project targets retrofit stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) on public land to assist partnering Local Government Units (LGUs) achieve water quality goals identified in local stormwater plans. The Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) provides technical assistance and distributes Clean Water Funding (CWF) to leverage local funding through its time-proven Stormwater Retrofit Partnership (Partnership) cost share program.
This project is a continuation of the Dakota County Community Initiative, which has received Clean Water Funds in 2012 and 2013. It will provide cost share funding to organizations and associations who voluntarily construct medium sized water quality best management practices (BMPs) in Dakota County.
This project will use the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District's existing Conservation Initiative Funding program to provide technical assistance and monetary incentives for targeted, medium-sized projects such as raingardens, bioinfiltration, biofiltration, bioswales, shoreline stabilizations, and other best management practices (BMPs). Project proposals will be solicited from faith based organizations, homeowner associations, school organizations, lake associations, and others that own or manage large areas of land.
As part of the Dakota County Transportation Department's highway 78 road reconstruction project, the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization is partnering with Dakota County to install a nitrate treatment practice on a tributary to the South Branch Vermillion River adjacent to the road. The South Branch Vermillion River subwatershed is the highest nitrate loading subwatershed in the Vermillion River Watershed and is a significant contributor to contaminated drinking water in the eastern portion of the watershed.
The purpose of this program is to engage community groups for the installation of community accessible rain gardens and other water quality best management practices in Ramsey County. The goal is to install 6-12 storm water best management projects that will help protect and improve water quality of surrounding lakes. The installed practices will reduce an estimated 10 acre-feet of storm water runoff, 9 pounds of phosphorous, and 3 tons of sediment annually. Significant measurable outputs, with development of long-term partnerships, are primary objectives for this program.
A collaboration between the Roseau County SWCD and the Roseau River Watershed District (RRWD), the CD 8 Subwatershed Sediment Reduction Project will reduce sediment delivery to the Roseau River by implementing Best Management Practices on sites that have been identified as the greatest contributors of sediment. Sites were prioritized based on modeled data from the Watershed District's Site Prioritization Grant, and the International Watershed Institutes's Water Quality Decision Support Application (WQDSA) and local knowledge of the subwatershed.
The AgBMP Loan Program provides needed funding for local implementation of clean water practices at an extremely low cost, is unique in its structure and is not duplicated by any other source of funding.The AgBMP loan program provides 3% loans through local lenders to farmers, rural landowners, and agriculture supply businesses.
Peer Engineering, Inc. (Peer) will evaluate and recommend to MPCA groundwater monitoring staff prospective sites/locations for the installation of groundwater monitoring wells to evaluate contaminant/pollutant concentrations from various sources. Peer will oversee the installation of monitoring wells by retaining a state drilling contractor or preparing bid documents to retain well driller through the Department of Administration. Superfund staff will assist in the project by providing oversight of contractual requirements and provide technical assistance as needed.
This project will complete the installation of four nested wells to the Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Network and relocated one well in the City of Saint Paul. Braun Intertec will coordinate site access and oversee the well installation by a state drilling contractor.
The goal of this project is to use the We Are Water MN exhibit and their technical knowledge in relationship-building and storytelling to increase community capacity for sustainable watershed management in the Cannon River, Cedar River, Mississippi-Headwaters, Mississippi-Grand Rapids, Mississippi-Twin Cities, Red Lake River, Rum River and St. Louis River watersheds.
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
This project will support updates to the Draft Bald Eagle Lake TMDL. The updates will address comments received during the public comment period. The comments resulted in the development of individual Wasteload Allocations for stormwater sources in the Bald Eagle Lake watershed.
The Plymouth Creek Restoration Project will improve water quality in Plymouth Creek and Medicine Lake, the creek's primary receiving water. The project will reduce total phosphorus and suspended sediment in Plymouth Creek and Medicine Lake stemming from streambank erosion. Streambank erosion is a common source of pollution, particularly in developed landscapes where flows in streams are considered flashy and can easily scour unprotected and disturbed streambanks.
This project engages private property owners including non-profits, businesses, and institutions, in the Harrison Neighborhood of Near North Minneapolis to install storm water best management practices. The BMPs will reduce pollution in Bassett Creek including chlorides and bacteria, for which the creek is impaired. The primary focus is on Glenwood Avenue, a focal point in the community and a highly impervious area.
Installation of a 43,000 sf infiltration gallery in Becker Park in the City of Crystal to infiltrate 0.5 inches of runoff from a 147 acre currently untreated mixed use subwatershed with 51% impervious surface. The project will reduce total phosphorus to Impaired Water Upper Twin Lake by 118 pounds annually, and reduce street flooding on Bass Lake Road (Hennepin County Road 10).
Once thought to have an essentially inexhaustible groundwater supply, Minnesotans are now realizing our rates of use are regionally unsustainable. Recent advanced modeling by the MN DNR and Metropolitan Council of aquifer supplies, in conjunction with predicted demand, indicate the major metropolitan area aquifers are currently subject to extraction rates that exceed recharge. Simply stated, we are mining our groundwater.
The Conservation Dashboard will provide the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District, its water plan, and local landowners a system to target, prioritize, and measure resource needs and effective conservation implementation within the subwatersheds of Carlton County. The Dashboard will identify where data gaps exist, translate the data in a way that partners and landowners easily understand, and insert Best Management Practice recommendations onto the county webmapping tool, used by citizens.
The Carver County Planning and Water Management Department (PWM) has an active well sealing cost share program. Following the adoption of the updated County Groundwater Plan in February of 2016, the Carver County Board of Commissioners moved to accelerate the program to encourage landowners to seal abandoned wells. Carver County is looking to supplement existing funds, as demand is expected to increase. With this additional funding, it is the goal of Carver County PWM to seal an additional 15 wells county wide.
Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) will improve water quality in Casey Lake and ultimately Kohlman Lake through the installation of approximately 25 rain gardens on priority properties identified as part of the Casey Lake Urban Stormwater Retrofit Assessment completed by Ramsey Conservation District (RCD) in 2011.
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 City of Minnetonka and its residents highly value the water resources within the community, which include approximately ten lakes, four streams, and hundreds of wetlands. The City has been progressive in protecting these resources through policies and management strategies, and now wants to increase their on-the-ground efforts in protecting and improving water quality. The City hopes to conduct targeted watershed assessments for fourteen selected priority water bodies to identify and optimize the type and locations of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to be installed.
Duluth area streams received over 10 inches of rainfall on June 19 and June 20, 2012. This "500 year event" provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to further understand sediment movement and stream channel alterations due to an event of this magnitude.
The City of Forest Lake will install four biofiltration basins and a wet sedimentation pond to treat stormwater prior to discharge into Clear Lake. Clear Lake is identified as a priority lake within the Rice Creek Watershed District's (RCWD) Watershed Management Plan and does not meet the nutrient goals established by the RCWD. Mid-summer algae blooms are common and occasionally severe enough to impact recreation.
This project is to develop a watershed restoration and protection strategies report that provides quantitative pollutant source estimates and a set of pollutant reduction and watershed management strategies to protect and achieve water quality standards for all aquatic life and aquatic recreation impairments in the watershed. The strategies will be understood and adoptable by local units of government and other stakeholders. New understandings and new relationships will inform and lead to eventual environmental improvements.
The St. Cloud Waste Water Treatment Facility (SCWWTF) is currently conducting long term planning for future biosolids management. The most likely path forward includes dewatering of the digested biosolids, which will produce a supernatant stream with significant phosphorus and ammonia loads that would be returned to the liquids treatment portion of the WWTF. Returning these nutrient loads to the liquids train would result in increases to effluent concentrations, increases in power consumption, or both.
The Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (District) has determined that large impervious sites (like churches, commercial sites, and schools) are more economical for stormwater management retrofit projects than distributed small projects along roadways. The District began assessing church sites for retrofit opportunities in 2013 and will continue this effort in 2014. Church congregations have been receptive to partnering with the watershed district.
This project is the ecological restoration of 1,400 feet of Shingle Creek, an Impaired Water for low dissolved oxygen and impaired biota, in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. The Shingle Creek Impaired Biota and Dissolved Oxygen Total Maximum Daily Load requires sediment oxygen demand load reductions and establishes restoration design standards to enhance habitat that will be incorporated into this project.
The Cottageville Park Water Quality Protection and Stream Restoration Project was developed to meet the goals of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and the City of Hopkins, including; water resource management, channel stabilization, stream enhancement, riparian corridor improvements, open space creation, park development, and revitalization. The project achieves these goals through implementation of the following:
This project will establish a framework with County, Soil and Water Conservation District and watershed staff that will outline their involvement throughout the development of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) for the Cottonwood River and Redwood River watersheds.
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 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 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).
