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The Snake River begins its 50-mile course in Marshall County and drains an area of 611,800 acres. The Snake River Watershed lies within Marshall, Polk, and Pennington Counties in NW Minnesota.
The South Fork Crow River Watershed covers 818,428 acres. It is located in south-central Minnesota and encompasses parts of Kandiyohi, Renville, Meeker, McLeod, Sibley, Wright, Carver, and Hennepin counties.
The Clearwater River Watershed drains an area of 886,600 acres in the Red River of the North basin. The river flows to the northwest and southwest, eventually emptying into Red Lake River near Red Lake Falls.
Status of total maximum daily load (TMDL) projects in Minnesota.
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.
The Shell Rock River begins at Albert Lea Lake in Freeborn County in south-central Minnesota, a few miles from the Iowa border. It flows 113 miles into Iowa, where it enters the Cedar River. In Minnesota, the Shell Rock drains 246 square miles (160,000 acres), all in Freeborn County.
The Red River of the North - Grand Marais Creek Watershed covers 298,264 acres and is part of the Red River Basin in northwestern Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota.
New reports from the MPCA highlight restoration investments and improved water quality while calling for continued work to address persistent challenges in southeastern Minnesota.
The MPCA completed 75 enforcement cases for water quality, air quality, waste, stormwater, and wastewater violations in the second half of 2024.
A program to provide sustainable, longer-term funding a select number watersheds to make measurable and visible progress.
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.
The Minnesota River - Headwaters Watershed covers 487,015 acres in the Prairie Parkland ecoregion of southwestern Minnesota. Portions of Traverse, Big Stone, Swift, Lac qui Parle, Stevens, and Chippewa counties drain the watershed.
The MPCA gave an environmental award to the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, which sold land so it could become a watershed wetland in Baxter. The project is being finalized in summer 2024.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) reflect how agency staff and contracted partners complete agency-funded field activities.
MagIron LLC proposes to restart a mining and processing facility near Grand Rapids, which will require new air and industrial wastewater permits from the MPCA.
The Mississippi River - St. Cloud Watershed covers 691,200 acres (1,080 square miles) in the south-central part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. The watershed includes all or parts of the counties of Benton, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, and Wright.
The Blue Earth River begins in northern Iowa and meets with the West Branch Blue Earth River in Faribault County. The watershed includes parts of eight counties in southern Minnesota and four in northern Iowa.
Significant restoration work by organizations in the area have made the south branch of the Buffalo River a water-quality success story.
Water scientists from the MPCA published four watershed reports in 2025, updating the data we need to keep Minnesota’s waters clean and protected.
The MPCA proposes adding 46 new impaired bodies of water and removing 45 impairments from bodies of water from the IWL, the most removals in a two-year cycle since the state began the IWL program in 1992.