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Surface water assessment grants (SWAG) provide local organizations and citizen volunteers with funds to complete the monitoring needed to meet assessment requirements on Minnesota lakes and streams. Assessment is usually the first step in protecting or restoring surface waters.
We hope to make your monitoring experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. If you have any questions, or don’t find the resources you need, please contact us. 13456: Volunteer water…
Volunteer-collected data are regularly used in decision-making and conservation efforts. Find a program that excites you and join in.
Seventeen TMDL projects undertaken in the Lower Minnesota River Watershed, to address nutrient, turbidity, fecal coliform, chloride, and other impairments.
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 MPCA recognized 236 wastewater facilities for outstanding operations in 2024.
Volunteer water monitors collect valuable data used by agencies and organizations across the state to protect and manage Minnesota’s waters.
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.
For more than 50 years, volunteers have gathered critically important water clarity data on Minnesota lakes and streams.
The Mustinka River begins its course southwest of Fergus Falls in southwestern Otter Tail County and flows toward the south into Grant County, where it continues through Stony Brook Lake and Lightning Lake.
The Kettle River Watershed covers 672,235 acres in northeast Minnesota, covering parts of Aitkin, Carlton, Kanabec, and Pine counties.
Ten TMDL projects undertaken in the Lower St. Croix River Watershed to address nutrient, biota, bacteria, and other impairments.
The Otter Tail River Watershed encompasses three different ecoregions, covering more than 1.2 million acres in west-central Minnesota.
The Crow Wing River Watershed is located in north-central Minnesota and covers approximately 1,946 square miles within the counties of Becker, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Morrison, Otter Tail, Todd, and Wadena.
The St. Louis River Watershed covers 3,584 square miles at the head of the Great Lakes and represents the extreme headwaters of the St. Lawrence River.
MPCA recognized 253 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants for outstanding operations in 2023.
A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that drains off of it goes into the same place — a river, stream or lake.
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…
Water scientists from the MPCA published four watershed reports in 2025, updating the data we need to keep Minnesota’s waters clean and protected.
Some pollutants attach to suspended particles in the water and subsequently settle out to the bottom sediment. At elevated concentrations, contaminated sediments can contribute to fish…