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Minnesota River Basin TrendsThe purpose of this report, published in 2009 by the Water Resources Center at Minnesota State University Mankato, is to provide a broad overview of trends related to the state of the Minnesota River. It summarizes some of the major demographic, land use, water quality, biological and recreational trends in the Minnesota River Basin over the past 10 to 100 years depending on data availability. In a few cases, where an analysis of change over time was not possible, the report includes information on current conditions. |
Minnesota River Communications Strategy: A Community CollaborativeWith the support of basin organizations, the Minnesota River Communication Strategy: a Community Collaborative was developed to help people and organizations connect, convey, and network between themselves and to the general public on a higher level. Visit the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency website for more information. |
Progress on a Long Voyage: Decades of Effort Show Improvement in Minnesota River Water QualityThis report, published in 2007 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, provides an overview of what has been accomplished to improve and protect water quality in the Minnesota River and its tributaries. Many organizations periodically report on their activities. Examples include agricultural practices, individual sewage treatment systems, wastewater treatment facility upgrades, and impaired waters projects. This does not include the many private or voluntary practices that may not be recorded by an agency. |
Water Is Life: Protecting a Critical Resource for Future GenerationsFor 40 years, the Freshwater Society has worked for the conservation and rational management of freshwater resources. As part of that effort, the society sought the assistance of eight distinguished Minnesotans to examine our water resources, question our water policies and advise the Society’s board on fulfilling the Society’s mission. View the report. |
Working Together: A Plan to Restore the Minnesota RiverRestoration efforts in the Minnesota River Basin gained significant momentum in 1992, when then-Governor Arne Carlson proclaimed a goal of making the river “swimmable and fishable” within 10 years. To that end, Governor Carlson established the Minnesota River Citizens’ Advisory Committee to develop recommendations for restoring the river, and in 1994 the committee published this report. It is being used to this day as a guideline for restoration efforts. |
To the Source: Moving Minnesota's Water Governance UpstreamIn their vision of Minnesota’s water future, the Citizens League has recast the relationship between the public and government, making water stewardship a shared responsibility. Our vision reframes water management entities as the conveners of collaboration among members of the public and between the public and government. View the report. |
A River Runs Through It: Cultures, Economies and Landscapes Within the Minnesota River Basin to 1900Written by Polly Fry, this thesis was submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota in 1999. At the conclusion of Chapter 1, Fry writes: "This dissertation explores the creation, character, and function of indigenous and colonial landscapes with the Minnesota River Basin. By traveling deep into the history of the region and broadly across the many resources available to interpret that history a new and much more complicated story emerges." |
Minnesota River Clean-Up: Ten Years LaterWritten in 2002 by Kris Sigford, Water Quality Program Director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. From the introduction to the report: In September of 1992 former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson announced an ambitious plan to clean-upthe Minnesota River in 10 years. His goal was to make what was then considered to be the state’s most polluted waterway “swimmable and fishable” by 2002. In this report, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) examines the results of a decade long series of studies and efforts to achieve that goal. We look at water quality problems in the Minnesota River in 1992, goals and recommendations established for cleaning-up the river, what was done, what was spent, and water quality results at present. Finally, we present recommendations to accelerate completion of the job in the next 10 years. |
River with a past: On the lush Minnesota, beautiful scenery comes with harsh historyA 2009 article from Midwest Weekends that provides an overview of the basin and the history of conflict between the Dakota people and Euro-American settlers. The article begins: Around the world, people know Minnesota for its waters — source of the Mississippi, land of lakes. But those are not the waters for which it's named. Those waters belong to a river whose cloudiness led the Dakota to call it "waters reflecting the skies" — the Minnesota. |
Lower Minnesota River Study: Monitoring and Modeling Water Quality F rom Jordan, Minnesota, to the MouthA June 2010 technical report on the status of the lower reaches of the river, where water quality is influenced by management practices throughout the Minnesota River Basin. From the report's summary: The Metropolitan Council led a cooperative effort of federal, state, and local agencies to develop |