The overall goal of this project is to perform water quality monitoring duties to accomplish MPCA’s SWAG monitoring efforts at the four sites listed in Section IV of this application for the Middle Minnesota River stream sites selected in Renville, Redwood and Brown counties and allow for the assessment of aquatic life and aquatic recreation use for those reaches of the minor streams.
This project will support the monitoring of two sites on the Cannon River throughout the field seasons of 2013 and 2014 during storm events and baseflow conditions to capture 25 samples per year at each site according to the WPLMN objectives. The information gathered from these samples and site visits will be compiled for reporting purposes and for use in calculating pollutant loading using the FLUX32 model.
Lower Prior Lake was the target of a 2011-2013 diagnostic and feasibility study that identified projects and ranked subwatershed by phosphorus loading to the lake. This project is in a high loading subwatershed and includes three elements designed to reduce phosphorus loading and control rates and volumes of stormwater runoff: 1) retrofitting an existing ditch section with in-line iron-sand filters; 2) expanding storage capacity and creating wetland upstream of the ditch; and 3) installing a new control structure in an existing berm.
Arctic Lake, while not listed as an impaired water on the statewide 303(d) list, both regularly exceeds the statewide phosphorus standard for shallow lakes and drains directly to Upper Prior Lake, which is impaired for nutrients Reducing Phosphorus to Arctic Lake will help reverse the current declining water quality while also reducing the loading entering Upper Prior Lake.
This project builds on the momentum and success of previous Clean Water Fund grants in making significant non-point source pollution reductions that address state-identified turbidity, excess nutrient and dissolved oxygen impairments of the Lower Minnesota River and points downstream. These water quality improvements will be achieved by constructing high-value, cost-effective conservation best management practices in Scott County directly tributary to the Minnesota River.
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.
A direct appropriation of $400,000 in FY 2010 for the Anoka Conservation District (ACD) is for the metropolitan landscape restoration program for water quality and improvement projects in the seven-county metro area (the law also provides $600,000 for this purpose in FY2011).
A direct appropriation of $400,000 in FY 2010 and $600,000 in FY2011 for the Anoka Conservation District (ACD) is for the metropolitan landscape restoration program for water quality and improvement projects in the seven-county metro area.
The DNR is working with local communities and an interagency team to define, prioritize, and establish groundwater management areas in Minnesota. Groundwater management areas will have increased data collection and monitoring that allow the state and local communities to understand water supplies, uses, limitations, and threats to natural resources that depend on groundwater. This information will support detailed aquifer protection plans that ensure equitable and sustainable groundwater and drinking water use for the future.
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
Working with the Metropolitan Council, the University of Minnesota - Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP) is investigating the opportunity for water conservation by private industrial water users across the Twin Cities metropolitan region. Private industrial water users are defined as industries that use private wells for their water supply. This work is determining factors that encourage or create barriers for implementation of identified industrial water conservation opportunities.
This project will reduce sediment to the Minnesota River, and protect private land and public infrastructure. Blakeley Trail (County Rd 60) in southwest Scott County is surrounded by deep ravines. As these ravines incise, they cause road shoulder landslides, which cut into private property, threaten the road at the head-cuts and generate sediment which creates maintenance and flooding issues downstream. The Scott Watershed Management Organization and the Scott County Highway Department have partnered on this project because of the multiple benefits.
Seminary Fen, a 600-acre complex in Carver County, supports one of only 500 calcareous fens in the world and is one of the highest quality calcareous fens in southern Minnesota. The Fen feeds Assumption Creek; one of the metro area's last known trout streams that supports naturally reproducing native brook trout. Assumption Creek then discharges to the nearby Minnesota River. The Fen's unique hydrology, soils, plants, and habitats are highly sensitive to water quality and sedimentation stress.
This project will develop a Final TMDL report and Implementation Plan for the Bluff Creek Watershed. The main outcomes of this project are the development of a Final TMDL Report approved by MPCA and EPA and a Final Implementation Plan approved by MPCA.
This Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project will develop a TMDL Report and Implementation Plan defining the sources contributing to the impairments and outlining the steps necessary to bring Bluff Creek back to meeting water quality standards.
Governor Mark Dayton's landmark buffer initiative was signed into law in 2015. The law establishes new perennial vegetation buffers of up to 50 feet along rivers, streams, and ditches that will help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment. The new law provides flexibility and financial support for landowners to install and maintain buffers.The DNR's role in Minnesota's new buffer law is to produce a statewide map of public waters and public ditches that require permanent vegetation buffers. The DNR is scheduled to produce these maps by July 2016.
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 goal of this project is to use a science-based and participatory approach to understanding and promoting conservation practices in the agricultural community.
This project targets stabilizing 900+ feet of eroding shoreline in the Cedar Lake Farms Regional Park converting it into a healthy native buffer on Cedar Lake.The project addresses phosphorus loading by reducing erosion from unstable shoreline banks adjacent to Cedar Lake. This will increase infiltration, intercept upland runoff, and stabilize the soil at the water's edge to decrease erosion and the addition of phosphorus into the lake. It is estimated that a shoreline stabilization at Cedar Lake will reduce 12-25 lbs/ year phosphorus depending on the regression rate.
This project represents a one-time opportunity to improve the quality of stormwater runoff from the parking lot and access road at Cleary Lake Regional Park. Cleary Lake is listed as impaired for excessive nutrients and is a focal point for many park activities. Three Rivers Park District and Scott County are partnering to reconstruct the park access road and to mill and overlay or conduct full depth reclamation of the parking lot at the park in 2013. Other partners include the Scott Watershed Management Organization (Scott WMO) and the Scott County Public Works Department.
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.
The DNR works with the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS) to develop County Geologic Atlases to convey geologic and hydrogeologic (groundwater) information and interpretations to government units at all levels, but particularly to local governments, as well as private organizations and citizens. The MGS focuses on geology (Part A reports) and DNR focuses on groundwater (Part B reports).These studies provide information about the region’s geology and groundwater’s presence, direction of flow, natural quality, age, and pollution sensitivity.
This project will promote land and water treatment practices, including wetland restoration, riparian vegetation management, geomorphic (stream stabilization and grade control), livestock exclusion, native grasses, and rain gardens. Also included are three specific geomorphic (stream/grade) stabilization projects in the Hidden Hills Park area of Savage, a wetland restoration in Savage, and finishing the Ponds Park Storm Water Reuse Project.
This project will promote land and water treatment practices, including wetland restoration, riparian vegetation management, geomorphic (stream stabilization and grade control), livestock exclusion, native grasses, and rain gardens. Also included are three specific geomorphic (stream/grade) stabilization projects in the Hidden Hills Park area of Savage, a wetland restoration in Savage, and finishing the Ponds Park Storm Water Reuse Project.
This project will promote land and water treatment practices, including wetland restoration, riparian vegetation management, geomorphic (stream stabilization and grade control), livestock exclusion, native grasses, and rain gardens. Also included are three specific geomorphic (stream/grade) stabilization projects in the Hidden Hills Park area of Savage, a wetland restoration in Savage, and finishing the Ponds Park Storm Water Reuse Project.
This project will consist of identifying the candidate causes of biological stress and to develop and implement a public and stakeholder participation process that encourages local ownership of water quality problems and solutions. The Stressor ID process will be done using existing data, identifying data gaps, gathering new data, developing load duration curves, and refinement of the candidate causes. The civic engagement work will include compiling and reviewing existing data on community capacity and assessing that information.
This project will build network and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection in Southeast Minnesota. The cohort will be administered through the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board (SE MN WRB) which is an area wide Joint Powers Board (JPB) established to help improve and protect the water resources of the area through coordinating local water planning efforts. This JPB has successfully administered water quality grants in the past that have positively impacted the water resources of this region.
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 MPCA, in partnership with the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization, contracted with Wenck Associates, Inc., to develop the Stressor Identification (SID) Report; and develop the necessary models for the Vermillion River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) as part of Phase I. The final Vermillion River Watershed SID report discusses all of the analysis that was done in the watershed to identify the primary stressors causing the fish and macroinvertebrate impairments in the watershed.
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 is a legislatively mandated project. In order to receive $1,075,000 in water recreation account appropriations for enhancing public water access facilities in FY 2014 and FY 2015 respectively, the commissioner must develop design standards and best management practices specifically for improving water quality by avoiding shoreline erosion and runoff for water accesses.
On behalf of the Metropolitan Council, Barr Engineering Company developed maps and supporting information to characterize the relationship between surface waters and groundwater, identifying surface waters most likely to be impacted by groundwater withdrawals in the region. This project also provided guidance on effective resource monitoring strategies and costs for each type of surface water feature.
The DNR works with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health to determine the level of contamination from mercury and other harmful chemicals in fish from Minnesota's lakes and rivers and to track the success of efforts to reduce mercury pollution. Clean Water Legacy funding is being used to significantly increase (more than double) the number of lakes and rivers that are assessed for mercury contamination on an annual basis. Fish are collected during DNR fishery surveys, processed for laboratory testing, and analyzed for contaminants.
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.
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.
On behalf of the Metropolitan Council, the Minnesota Geological Survey collected information and conducted an assessment of the hydraulic properties and chemistry of selected aquifers in the metro area. This project greatly improves the accessibility of existing data, which were previously available only in scattered paper reports. A robust database of groundwater age, aquifer hydraulic conductivity and groundwater chemistry data was developed to make the information easily accessible to water resource managers.
The goal of this project is to extend the existing HSPF models through 2012 in the Chippewa Watershed (07020005) and Hawk-Yellow Medicine Watershed (07020004) to incorporate recent monitoring data to support current MPCA business needs and sediment source investigations.
This project will complete spatial and temporal revisions of 6 Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) models, the recalibration and validation of 7 watershed HSPF models, and the revision of the drainage network and point source representation of the Pomme de Terre HSPF model.
The Twin Cities metropolitan area has a rich history and connection with its waters. In an effort to keep surface waters clean, a wide variety of stormwater practices have been developed and installed throughout the metro in recent years. Many of these, such as rain gardens and infiltration basins and trenches, are intended to reduce the total runoff volume by infiltrating stormwater. Six to seven aquifers underlie the metro area and provide residents with drinking water.
In 2005, Metropolitan Council was directed to carry out regional water supply planning activities under Minnesota Statutes, section 473.1565. Working closely with the region's many water supply stakeholders and under the guidance of a metropolitan area water supply advisory committee, Metropolitan Council developed and adopted a metropolitan area master water supply plan (master plan) in 2010. The plan provides a framework for water supply planning and identifies actions needed to achieve the goal of ensuring sustainable water supplies across the region.
