Minnesota's impaired waters and TMDLs

Impaired Waters Viewer (IWAV)

Three views of water resource data are available in the IWAV:

• All impairments: All waters from the 2008 Minnesota impaired waters list (red), along with draft listings for 2010 (orange), are shown in this view. This is the default.
• Approved TMDLs: Waters with US EPA approved TMDL studies are shown in this view. Waters in the state-wide mercury TMDL are not included in this view.
• Delisted Impairments: Waters with previous impairments that now meet water quality standards due to corrective actions are shown in this view.

Notes:

• Use the city search to find a city (example: St. Paul).
• Use the stream search or lake search to find a waterbody using name or AUID (example: Sunrise River or 02-0034-00).
• An AUID or Assessment Unit Identification number is an MPCA identification number that refers to all or part of a stream, lake or wetland.
• Place the cursor arrow over an impaired water body and click to get more information about it. In the pop up window that appears, click on the AUID link for additional information.
• Lists of acronyms for beneficial water resource uses and water quality problems are located below the map.

List of beneficial water resource uses:

• AQC = Aquatic Consumption
• AQL =  Aquatic Life
• AQR =  Aquatic Recreation

List of water quality problems:

• A = ammonia
• ACE = acetochlor (Herbicide)
• B-F = fish IBI (Index of Biological Integrity)
• B-FI = fish  and invertebrate IBI
• B-I = invertebrate IBI
• B-P = plant IBI
• Cl = chloride
• DO = low dissolved oxygen
• E. coli = Escherichia coli
• FC = Fecal Coliform (Bacteria)
• Hg = mercury
• LCWA = lack of coldwater assemblage (fish species)
• NO3 = nitrates
• Nutrients/Eutro = excess nutrients / eutrophication
• PBT = persistent bioaccumulative toxics
• PCB = polychlorinated biphenyls
• PFOS = perfluorooctane sulfonate
• pH = pH
• T = turbidity
• Tm = temperature

See the MPCA Glossary for definitions of terms.

Map files

January 2009 maps of all impaired waters

• Inventory of All Impaired Waters - Rivers (tmdl-inventory-streams)
• Inventory of All Impaired Waters - Lakes and Wetlands (tmdl-inventory-lakeswetlands)

Map archives

• 2008 Maps
• 2006 Maps
• 2004 Maps
• 2002 Maps
• 1998 Maps

Map shapefiles

The zipped files below contains shapefiles which represent the current Inventory of Impaired Waters (per Section 303(d) Clean Water Act). These files were created for those interested in preparing computerized maps of impaired waters. To use these files you will need Geographic Information System (GIS) computer software. The zipped files contain a separate shapefile for lakes, streams and wetlands, including metadata. The projection for these shapefiles is UTM extended zone 15, NAD83. These shapefiles were created by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency using the 1:24,000 scale National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). If you have any questions or comments, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. at 651-757-2294.

• 303(d) Impaired waters — Lakes (2010) (impaired_2010_lakes) (file size = 8.2 MB)
• 303(d) Impaired waters — Wetlands (2010) (impaired_2010_wetlands)
• 303(d) Impaired waters — Streams (2010) (impaired_2010_streams) (file size = 9 MB)
• See more spatial data