The Ramsey Conservation District is partnering with the Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization, St. Paul Regional Water Service, and Ramsey County Parks and Recreation to restore and stabilize approximately 550 linear feet of streambank along the Sucker Lake Channel in northeastern Ramsey County with a cost effective critical area planting, replacing the existing mix of turf grass and asphalt streambank with a native vegetation planting.
The LeSueur River Watershed is one of the highest nutrient loading watersheds for both phosphorus and nitrogen in the State of Minnesota. The LeSueur River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) Report was completed in August 2015 and further identifies pollutant sources and reduction goals within the LeSueur River Watershed. The WRAPS report highlights the Beauford Ditch watershed and the Madison Lake watershed area amongst the highest sources of nutrient loading to the LeSueur River.
The Mississippi River is currently listed as impaired for turbidity. Eroding riverbanks are one of the causes of this impairment. An inventory was completed in 2016 of riverbank condition along 5.8-miles of the Mississippi River that is within the City of Ramsey. In this inventory, ten severe to very severe eroding stretches spanning 27 private properties and 6,550 linear feet were identified. Cumulatively, these sites contribute 5,148 tons of sediment per year to the river.
The objective of the project is to develop a targeted stormwater implementation and outreach program focused on non-profit partners. The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District is a 50 square mile fully-developed watershed with 15 major lakes and over twenty miles of creek system. Given that much development in this area occurred prior to the era of stormwater management regulations, runoff from many sites is untreated prior to discharge to downstream water bodies.
The goal of this project is to calculate an additional bacteria total maximum daily load and incorporating that information in the Total Maximum Daily Load Report (TMDL) and the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) report. Other services that will be provided during this project are technical assistance, assistance with responses to comments received during the public notice process, incorporating public comments into the documents and preparing the documents for final federal and state approval.
The goal of the project is to identify priority locations for project implementation using the Prioritize, Targeting, and Measuring Application (PTMApp) in the Thief River Watershed. The PTMApp will be used to identify and evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of best management practices including treatment scenarios, and provide estimates of sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus delivered to the Thief River Watershed, which is impaired for sediment.
This project will improve surface water quality within the sediment degraded Trout Brook, a designated trout stream and tributary to the Cannon River. The project will focus on the installation of best management practices that will reduce the amount of sediment transport within the watershed. Approximately 20 practices will be installed through this project which will reduce an estimated 2,000 tons of sediment per year.
The goal of this project is to gather and collect necessary watershed data for the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) for the Upper/Lower Red Lakes Watershed that includes impairments, their causes, and plans for restoration. Implementation of the WRAPS will maintain or improve water quality for the watershed.
The primary goal of this project is to examine the calibration and validation of recently extended Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed models for the Mississippi River-Headwaters, Mississippi River-Grand Rapids, Mississippi River-Brainerd, Mississippi River-Sartell, Mississippi River-St. Cloud, Leech Lake, Pine River, Crow Wing River, Long Prairie River, and Redeye River watersheds and revise the calibration.
This goal of this project is the completion of a Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Upper Red River watershed in the Red River Basin. This includes the construction, calibration, and validation of the model for hydrology and water quality parameters.
The Upper Buffalo River Sediment Reduction Project area lies in the first major land use transition within the buffalo's flowage, where intact forests and modestly developed lakes give way to altered hydrology and tilled fields of highly productive soils near the top of the Red River Basin. This abrupt change in land use within the watershed is directly linked to stream impairments within the project area.
This project is designed to complete an inventory and assessment of existing stormwater infrastructure in the cities of Two Harbors and Silver including mapping urban surface and sub-surface storm water flow to determine flow paths, pour points, and areas of limited storm water infrastructural capacity. The results of this assessment will be an assessment with prioritized and targeted opportunities for municipal infrastructure retrofits or best management practice installation on both public and private land.
The purpose of this project is to complete subwatershed analysis for Cannon River and Vermillion River sub-watersheds to prioritize and target Best Management Practices based on cost-effectiveness with regard to pollutant reduction. This process is intended to proactively assist local water management and partner agencies in maximizing the value of each dollar spent to improve water quality in the respective rivers.
Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment seeks to continue a 100% cost share assistance well sealing program. County residents rely on groundwater for 100% of their drinking water. Sealing unused wells has long been a priority for the county, as they are a potential threat to health, safety, and the environment. The presence of several groundwater contamination areas only highlights the need to seal off these unused wells.
The Metropolitan Council was awarded $1,250,000 from Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment funds for a Water Efficiency Grant Program during the Minnesota Legislature's 2021 First Special Session. The Metropolitan Council (Council) implemented a water efficiency grant program effective July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024. Grants were awarded on a competitive basis to municipalities that are served by a municipal water system. The Council provides 80% of the program cost; the municipality must provide the remaining 20%.
The goal of this project is to develop guidance for water quality parameter evaluation and calibration for Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) applications focused on dissolved oxygen (D.O.), nutrient, and algal simulation, along with a demonstration of the guidance by step-by-step application to D.O.-impaired Minnesota watersheds.
This is a joint project between the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), North Dakota, and Manitoba. The project is a basin-wide, up-to-date water quality trend analysis using the "QWTrend" program for approximately 40 bi-national river sites to review nutrients, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, sulfate and chloride from 1980 - 2015.
This project targets one of Chisago County's few remaining large dairy operations. It is situated on the top of the St. Croix River escarpment and drains over the bluff to the St. Croix River. This project includes installation of several practices in the feedlot area, including critical area planting to help stabilize a gully formed through the feedlot. There are also two other gullies located at the edge of fields or pasture areas that will be stabilized using water and sediment control structures, grade stabilization practices, or diversions.
This program supports communities as they plan and implement projects that address emerging drinking water supply threats. It supports the exploration cost-effective regional and sub-regional solutions, leverages inter-jurisdictional coordination, and prevents overuse and degradation of groundwater resources.
Vermilion Community College will assist the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) with meeting the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) development objectives of collecting data and completing watershed assessments for the Rainy River Headwaters, Vermilion River, and Little Fork River watersheds. Services will include providing support for field water monitoring, other field sampling and measurements and related field data management, analysis, and assessments in these watersheds.
The Watershed Health Assessment Framework (WHAF) is a web-based tool for resource managers and others interested in the ecological health of Minnesota's watersheds. The framework uses five ecological components to organize and deliver information about watershed health conditions in Minnesota. The five components are hydrology, connectivity, biology, geomorphology, and water quality. Statewide GIS data from DNR and partner agencies are used to calculate health scores that reveal similarities and differences between watersheds.
The DNR provides technical support related to the causes of altered hydrology and watershed management solutions. We use state-of-the-art models and statistical methods to look at cumulative impacts of drainage and land-use practices and determine the benefits of best management practices. This involves collaboration with multiple partners at multiple scales.
This project delineates and maps watersheds (drainage areas) of lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands for the state of Minnesota and provides watershed maps in digital form for use in geographic information systems. These maps become the basis for clean water planning and implementation efforts.
DNR regional clean water specialists and area hydrologists work with regional staff from other state agencies and with local partners to help identify the causes of pollution problems and determine the best strategies for fixing them. We collect and analyze stream channel stability and streambank erosion data to help identify root causes of certain water quality impairments in streams.
The Watonwan Watershed Resource Specialist has been funding with Clean Water funds since 2012. Since that time, the Watonwan Watershed Resource Specialist has been a crucial connector between landowners and natural resource professionals in the Watonwan Watershed. As the technical ability and responsibilities of the WWRS expands, the need and urgency to secure extended funding becomes a priority. This project will fund half of the Watonwan Watershed Research Specialist position through year 2020.
The Yellow Medicine One Watershed One Plan has identified Protecting and Preserving Groundwater Quality and Quantity as one of the three priorities addressed in the Plan. Seven priority sub-watersheds have been identified as priority areas, as well as two townships that have been identified by the Department of Agriculture to have vulnerable groundwater areas. Our goal is to provide 50% cost share to seal 34 abandoned wells that are located in these priority areas.
The DNR is directed by Minnesota Law 2016, Chapter 172, Article 2, Section 12 to request proposals for a potential design-build project to augment White Bear Lake with water from East Vadnais Lake.
This project will continue the development of a Pre-Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) assessment, evaluation, community outreach and involvement, and development project that will provide for a comprehensive and more successful watershed restoration approach.
The goal of this project is to maintain and make enhancements to the Winter Maintenance Assessment tool (WMAt), which is a necessary technical resource and planning tool for stakeholders and permittees to implement the chloride reduction strategies described in the Chloride Management Plan. The WMAt is critical for assisting stakeholders in meeting the water quality goals of the Chloride Management Plan without compromising public safety, and allowing for consideration of the varying resources and conditions for each individual winter maintenance program.
Trained staff will help assure the water chemistry data that is collected is of good quality. After the 1 day training events participants will be able to calibrate sonde water quality monitoring sensors in a lab or field setting, deploy the calibrated sonde to collect water chemistry, store sondes properly during non-field season and perform preventative maintenance or simple troubleshooting actions with the help of tech support. This will be satisfied by two different training events held in 2017.
The goal of this project is to test the sensitivity of the Zumbro River Watershed Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model management scenario results. Additional goals are to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired stream reaches and Rice Lake, which will be documented in a TMDL Report. The consultant will apply the existing calibrated and validated Zumbro River Watershed HSPF model to construct load duration curves to develop TMDLs.
