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Finding ways to keep stormwater on land and let it soak into the ground can lessen the negative effects on water quality from stormwater.
The MPCA studies, monitors, and regulates water pollutants to protect human health and the environment. Minnesota water quality standards strives to protect water for use, measures health of waters, and guides limits on what regulated facilities can discharge to surface waters.
Water scientists from the MPCA published four watershed reports in 2025, updating the data we need to keep Minnesota’s waters clean and protected.
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.
We come from the stars Nibi Walks: A prayer for the water
The MPCA has important roles in protecting and restoring waters in degraded conditions.
The MPCA studies, monitors, and regulates numerous water pollutants to protect human health and the environment. At the state level, three agencies share the monitoring and control of pollutants:the…
Clearing ice? Before you reach for the salt bag and begin to scatter, consider using other tools to get the job done that are less toxic to our waterways and our beloved pets, and will save you money.
The MPCA 401 certification fills a unique niche in protecting water quality by applying state water quality standards to projects.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, states must designate beneficial uses for all waters and develop water quality standards to protect each use.
Clean Water Fund dollars come from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment that Minnesotans approved in 2008.
Protecting and restoring water quality is one of the MPCA's core areas of focus.
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.
For more than 50 years, volunteers have gathered critically important water clarity data on Minnesota lakes and streams.
State and federal permits and regulations that are designed to protect groundwater and surface water (lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands) apply to specific facilities and processes that could pose…
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.
State agencies, counties, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and many others are engaged in protecting Minnesota lakes.
The Clean Water Council was created to advise the Legislature and the Governor on the administration and implementation of the 2006 Clean Water Legacy Act
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.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) reflect how agency staff and contracted partners complete agency-funded field activities.