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Ask the MPCA features questions Minnesotans have asked us, on the issues the agency works on, from waste disposal, water and air quality, and chemicals in products to recycling and reuse,…

In early 2024, Minnesota became the first U.S. state to establish a product stewardship program for boat wrap, which must provide free collection, transportation, reuse, recycling, and disposal.

The 2025 MPCA annual report on Brownfields celebrated numerous major achievements cleaning up and rehabilitating polluted properties.

The Vermilion River Watershed, located within northern St. Louis County, covers 662,427 acres, or 1,035 square miles.

The MPCA provides educational information about the status of Minnesota’s air, water, land, and climate and can point you toward beneficial actions you can take as students, teachers, and life-long learners interested in Minnesota’s sustainable future.

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.

MPCA recognized 253 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants for outstanding operations in 2023.

MPCA’s community air monitoring pilot grant program will provide $4.85 million to build more networks of community air sensors in the Twin Cities metro area.

Tools to help small businesses determine if they need an air emissions permit and/or track compliance with their current air emissions permit.

Businesses like grocery, liquor, and convenience stores depend on refrigeration systems. Some of these systems, however, can prove expensive to operate and harmful to the environment.

Partnerships and diversified funding drive the work to restore water quality in impaired streams in the Red Lake River Watershed through science-based interventions.

A recent $1 million MPCA grant round will fund projects focused on waste reduction and reuse. To invest in projects that will continue to offer benefits to Minnesotans well into the future, this grant round prioritized proposals that would replace single-use items with reusables or help build a trained repair workforce in Minnesota.

While hundreds of fish kills occur in Minnesota every year, mostly in lakes and ponds, fish kills on trout streams in southeast Minnesota are much less common.

Smart Salting is a suite of techniques that minimize the environmental and economic impacts of chloride while still meeting public needs.

Permits for wastewater treatment require monthly, quarterly, or annual reporting of discharge monitoring results

Ready-to-run meteorological data suitable for AERMOD.

Owners/operators of construction activity must complete several steps before completing a permit application and beginning construction. These steps also help owners/operators determine their eligibility for coverage under the general permit.

As part of the PFAS pollution prevention law called Amara’s Law, manufacturers are required to report intentionally added PFAS in products sold in Minnesota and pay a fee. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has extended the reporting due date to Sept. 15, 2026.