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Every two years, MPCA creates a list of impaired waters in the state that do not meet water quality standards.

The MPCA added three bodies of water to the impaired waters list for PFAS contamination. Which are they? How did they get polluted? And how much PFAS does it take to contaminate a body of water?

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.

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 TMDL is based on 62 impairments for turbidity and total suspended solids along the Minnesota River and its tributaries and in the Greater Blue Earth River basin.

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

The triennial standards review offers every Minnesotan the opportunity to comment on essentially every water quality standard the agency defines to protect the waters that they drink, swim in, and fish from.

Regular people are pretty good at judging water quality, and new research from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) proves it.

MPCA studies shows 75% of Minnesota lakes meet standards for recreation. Clean Water Fund dollars help answer water quality questions.

The Clean Water Act established the framework for creating water quality standards and continues to help us protect Minnesota's prized lakes and rivers.

Researchers collect samples of sediment from the bottom of Lake of the Woods in 2024. (Photo courtesy of St. Croix Watershed Research Station) After years of study…

Kohlman Lake, one of 27 bodies of water to come off the impaired waters list this year, did so with substantial help from the Clean Water Fund.

This feature summarizes findings from four WRAPS reports in 2024: Root River, Mississippi River-St. Cloud, Pomme de Terre River, and Mississippi River-Lake Pepin Tributaries.

Minnesota is the first state government in U.S. to use this combination of innovative technologies to address "forever chemicals”

Two small creeks in the Nemadji River watershed are cleaner, and some fish have returned, after restoration work that the MPCA took part in.

The MPCA's regulatory, cleanup, and monitoring programs create and maintain spatial data that serve our environmental protection work and can be shared with partners and researchers.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) sample and test fish in bodies of water where known pollution issues may be a concern for human health through fish consumption.

Thanks to years of restoration efforts, the MPCA confirmed the Kabekona River meets water quality standards for recreation and proposed its removal from the 2026 impaired waters list.

Findings underscore need to reduce use of “forever chemicals”

The Lake Superior - North Watershed covers over 1 million acres in the Northern Lakes and Forest ecoregion.