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State agencies, counties, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and many others are engaged in protecting Minnesota lakes.
What is the blue-green scum that looks like spilled paint?In lakes that are over-enriched with phosphorus and nitrogen, algae tend to prosper and create algae blooms. Blue-green algae and one type in…
We come from the stars Nibi Walks: A prayer for the water Water is a relative A river provides…
The MPCA has important roles in protecting and restoring waters in degraded conditions.
The MPCA studies, monitors, and regulates water pollutants to protect human health and the environment. Minnesota water quality standards strives to protect water for use, measures health of waters, and guides limits on what regulated facilities can discharge to surface waters.
The MPCA studies, monitors, and regulates numerous water pollutants to protect human health and the environment. At the state level, three agencies share the monitoring and control of pollutants:…
The MPCA 401 certification fills a unique niche in protecting water quality by applying state water quality standards to projects.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, states must designate beneficial uses for all waters and develop water quality standards to protect each use.
Clean Water Fund dollars come from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment that Minnesotans approved in 2008.
Minnesotans cherish their access to clean water. Protecting and restoring water quality is therefore one of the MPCA's core areas of focus. Through intensive water-quality monitoring, we protect…
Water quality trading is a market-based approach to the protection and restoration of surface waters, another tool to be used in conjunction with existing voluntary, regulatory, and financial assistance programs.
For 50 years, volunteers have gathered critically important water clarity data on Minnesota lakes and streams.
State and federal permits and regulations that are designed to protect groundwater and surface water (lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands) apply to specific facilities and processes that could pose…
The MPCA works with city and county governments, watershed districts, consultants, and others on monitoring, protecting, and restoring water quality. This is a repository of guidance and technical…
The Clean Water Council was created to advise the Legislature and the Governor on the administration and implementation of the 2006 Clean Water Legacy Act
A water quality variance is a temporary change in a state's water quality standard for a specific pollutant and its relevant criteria, allowing deviation from meeting a water quality-based effluent limit for a particular discharger.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) reflect how agency staff and contracted partners complete agency-funded field activities.
The Clean Water Act established the framework for creating water quality standards and continues to help us protect Minnesota's prized lakes and rivers.
Every two years, MPCA creates a list of impaired waters in the state that do not meet water quality standards.
From the days when raw sewage flowed into rivers and lakes, Minnesota’s water bodies have come a long way. However, there is still work to be done in the restoration and protection of our waters.