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Less than three years after Minnesota passed the country's first ban on TCE, a carcinogenic solvent, facilities around the state have removed it from their processes.

To make electric school buses more affordable to school districts, the MPCA started a grant program that puts more of the cleaner buses on routes across the state.

Kathy Wagner, recipient of the 2025 Community Conservationist Award from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (MASWCD), discusses her personal conservation work and local environmental advocacy.

Water quality standards are frequently adopted statewide or by ecoregions. These standards can include large areas with different types of water, biological communities and natural water chemistries.

“Area C” is the name given to Ford Motor Company’s former industrial waste dump on the floodplain of the Mississippi River, at the base of the bluff below the former Twin Cities Assembly Plant in Saint Paul.

From January through March 2025, MPCA air monitoring data showed elevated lead levels that exceeded national ambient air quality standards near the facility. An MPCA inspection of Gopher Resource in spring 2025 confirmed that the source of the elevated lead levels was addressed.

The Rainy River - Rainy Lake Watershed covers 583,791 acres. Open water makes up 75,815 of those acres and wetlands occupy another 84,851 acres. The watershed is 64% in St. Louis County and 36% in Koochiching County. The northern boundary is part of the international border waters with Ontario, Canada.

MPCA had approximately $250,000 available to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through the use of stage 1 vapor recovery systems at gasoline-dispensing facilities throughout Minnesota.

The Rainy River - Headwaters Watershed covers nearly 1.9 million acres, starting in northern Cook and Lake Counties and flowing west/northwesterly into St. Louis County and the Canadian border waters.