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To protect and restore Minnesota's water resources by monitoring water quality, identifying impaired waters, regulating pollutants, supporting watershed management, and providing information and resources for water protection and restoration
The Water Quality portal is maintained by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the state agency responsible for monitoring environmental quality and enforcing environmental regulations in Minnesota. The portal serves as a central entry point for information on water quality conditions, monitoring programs, water pollutants, impaired waters, watershed assessments, restoration initiatives, and water protection efforts across the state.
The portal provides access to water quality monitoring programs, water quality standards, regulatory programs, impaired waters assessments, watershed restoration and protection strategies (WRAPS), long-term water quality trend analyses, groundwater contamination information, pollutant investigations, Clean Water Act reporting activities, monitoring strategies, watershed data resources, and surface-water data access tools. It also includes information on major water quality issues such as nutrients, sediment, PFAS contamination, nitrate pollution, agricultural runoff, stormwater impacts, groundwater contamination, and climate-related pressures on water resources. Users can access reports, monitoring data, watershed assessments, restoration plans, and environmental indicators describing the health of Minnesota's waters.
The MPCA conducts water-quality monitoring, watershed assessments, biological surveys, chemical sampling, pollutant investigations, and environmental analyses throughout Minnesota. Data from monitoring programs, partner agencies, and watershed studies are used to assess water conditions, identify impaired waters, develop restoration strategies, and track long-term trends in water quality. Assessments are conducted under state and federal water-quality programs, including requirements of the Clean Water Act.