Between 2010 and 2025, thousands of funded projects have enabled state agencies, Tribal Nations, and hundreds of local partners to protect and restore the state’s watersheds and drinking water sources
Minnesota’s water quality has measurably improved as a result of a coordinated statewide effort made possible by the Clean Water Fund, according to the recently released 2026 Clean Water Fund Performance Report.
“The Clean Water Fund has been an absolute game changer in Minnesota,” said Jen Kader, administrator for the Clean Water Council, a 28-member body that advises the Governor and Legislature on use of Clean Water Funds and implementation of the Clean Water Legacy Act. “The long-term, dedicated funding it provides has created a systematic approach for work that is based in science, prioritized locally, and is producing measurable results.”
Download the full report
Minnesota agencies released the 2026 Clean Water Fund Performance Report, which helps Minnesotans clarify connections between Clean Water funds invested, actions taken and outcomes achieved.
The report highlights progress enabled by the Clean Water Fund, which was created when Minnesotans overwhelmingly passed the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment in 2008. The Amendment was a major investment in the health of Minnesota’s drinking water, lakes, streams, and groundwater.
Since then, the Clean Water Fund, often in combination with other local, state, federal, Tribal, and private funding has made the following — and more — possible:
- protected and restored lakes and streams across the state, with a record number of waters in the process of being delisted from Minnesota's impaired waters list
- secured approximately 1,000 easements that protect 35,000 acres along stream corridors and within wellhead protection areas
- repaired over 900 subsurface sewage treatment systems that posed threats to human health.
- in 2024 and 2025 alone, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) awarded 26 new monitoring grants to Tribal Nations, counties, watershed districts, soil and water conservation districts, joint powers boards, educational institutions, and a nonprofit
- enabled statewide testing for PFAS in drinking water, covering more than 99% of Minnesotans that drink water from a community water system, and reviewed and developed guidance for PFAS that established Minnesota’s Contaminants of Emerging Concern initiative as a nationally respected leader in the field
- funded more than 3,700 local grants for on-the-ground projects, from farm conservation practices to shoreline and wetland restoration
- more than 1,300 volunteers monitor water quality each year, providing data on over 1,500 lake and stream locations
Through the Clean Water Fund, state agencies provide the science and funding. The project work itself happens locally by soil and water conservation districts, watershed districts, counties, cities, Tribal Nations, and on individual farms and properties.
“Fifteen years ago, Minnesota managed water one county at a time,” said Dana Vanderbosch, MPCA assistant commissioner for water policy and agriculture liaison. “Today every one of our 80 watersheds has a restoration and protection strategy report to inform local planning, and almost all have a comprehensive water management plan for what to do first and where partners do the projects to improve local water quality. That shift happened because the Clean Water Fund gave state, local, Tribal, and regional partners the resources and a structure to plan together — and that's why celebrating the progress detailed in this report is so important.”
The 2026 Performance Report includes a report card that indicates which trends are improving, not changing, or getting worse.
“The Clean Water Council understands that while we are seeing progress, we still have threats facing our waters, ecosystems, and communities,” Kader said. “We’re in a much better place to address these challenges than we were prior to the Legacy Amendment, but we’re not done yet. Targeted, focused investments in clean water are still needed.”