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Salt is commonly over-applied, sending too much chloride into our waterways and wreaking havoc on fish and other wildlife.
In 2010, the MPCA began receiving public inquiries about projects to mine silica sand for use in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a drilling method used for natural gas and oil wells.
The Lower St. Croix Watershed covers 585,735 acres and is located in northwest Wisconsin and east-central Minnesota.
Minnesota samples a network of shallow monitoring wells designed to provide early detection of contamination in the groundwater.
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 resources for agency partners.
PolyMet Mining plans to develop a mine and processing plant to extract copper, nickel, and precious metals.
$4.85 million to run community air monitoring projects in the 7-county Metropolitan Area (counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington).
Find out what’s being done in Minnesota’s watersheds to protect and improve water quality.
The Mississippi River - Twin Cities Watershed is 656,990 acres and lies almost entirely in the North Central Hardwoods Forest ecoregion in the Mississippi River Basin. The watershed contains 1,320 stream miles and 380 lakes. More than 1.8 million people live in this watershed.
The MPCA’s Smart Salting program helps cut down on chloride pollution by training snowplow drivers and municipalities to use less salt on the roadways.
Complying with the MS4 general permit
Permit 2025 Multi-Sector General Permit for Industrial Stormwater (wq-strm3-102g) Effective June 1, 2025 Updates and new…
Tailings basin piping leaked wastewater and about 11,500 cubic feet of tailings materials over nearly half an acre, including a nearby wetland in May 2023 due to inadequate operation and maintenance of the tailings basin pipeline at the company’s facility in Virginia, Minn.
The Minnesota portion of the Roseau River watershed covers 774,197 acres; an additional 594,560 acres are across the U.S. border in Canada.
The Lower Red River Watershed (also known as the Red River of the North - Tamarac River) drains an area of 281,000 acres, including parts of Kittson, Marshall, and Roseau counties.
The Little Fork River Watershed covers nearly 1.2 million acres, the main stem flowing 160 miles through north-central St. Louis County and heading northwest into Koochiching County. It flows more northerly until it reaches its confluence with the Rainy River about 11 miles west of International Falls.
The East Fork Des Moines River Watershed covers 839,518 acres, which includes Minnesota's Martin and Jackson counties.
The Redeye River Watershed covers nearly 900 square miles and is located the northwestern to north-central part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin in central Minnesota. The watershed encompasses all or parts of Becker, Otter Tail, Todd, and Wadena counties.
MPCA sought proposals from qualified responders for a contract conducting a waste characterization study evaluating the types of materials generated and discarded in Minnesota and their relative prominence in Minnesota’s waste streams.
Each year, Minnesotans throw away more than 850,000 tons of recyclables, worth around $153 million. Here's how we're reducing those numbers in Greater Minnesota.