Working with partners to restore and protect Minnesota's waters

December 2025

New law, grassroots work are keeping garbage off lake ice

This winter will be the third since a new Minnesota state law prohibited leaving waste behind on frozen lakes, or even letting it touch the ice. The law can be enforced with a $100 fine, and officials say it’s working.

“From 2022 to 2024, the resorts, the businesses, the ice road businesses, said there’s a drastic difference in what they’re seeing. They know the program’s working. They’re all on board and joining,” said Zach Gutknecht, a project manager for the Northwest Watershed Division of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

Groups are working on a local scale at more than 50 lakes across the state, taking different approaches most appropriate for their regions.

"It’s grassroots efforts working on a statewide level,” Gutknecht said.

The MPCA has supported the efforts, which included outreach and education, with grant money from the Clean Water Fund. Grants are available through BWSR and many SWCDs, made possible by a 2025 legislative appropriation specifically for Keep It Clean efforts.

Mike Hirst, a resource conservationist with the Lake of the Woods Soil and Water Conservation District, said during the 2024-2025 ice fishing season, conservation officers issued 311 tickets, with 81 citations and 230 warnings statewide.

WRAPS update charts a path forward in Chippewa River Watershed

The MPCA’s 2025 update to the Chippewa River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) highlights progress toward cleaner water and presents a science-based roadmap for continued action in one of Minnesota’s most diverse and agriculturally active watersheds.

Spanning more than 1.3 million acres in western Minnesota, the watershed supports farming, wildlife, and recreation. But like many landscapes in transition, it faces growing challenges. Heavier rainfall, faster runoff, and declining water storage capacity are making the system more unstable.

The 2025 WRAPS update builds on research conducted between 2019 and 2020 as part of Minnesota’s ongoing 10-year watershed monitoring cycle, funded by the Clean Water Fund. The new data confirm that phosphorus levels continue to decrease, water clarity continues to improve in many lakes, and insect life in streams, a key indicator of health, continues to bounce back.

Significant reduction in sediment at the watershed’s outlet offers the most promise, meaning clearer water flowing downstream. Improvements in manure management, septic system upgrades (aided by local loan programs), and better stormwater control have all contributed to these gains.

The project team invites community members to review the findings and offer input. A public comment period is open Dec. 8-Jan. 7. People can share their thoughts through the MPCA website.

Two new reports from MPCA provide snapshot of wetland health

The MPCA published two reports in 2025 about the status and trends of wetlands in Minnesota: Minnesota wetland condition assessment 2011-2021 and Depressional wetland quality assessment 2007-2023.

Wetlands are critical resources, acting as a filter for pollutants and helping with flood prevention by acting as a natural storm drain for Minnesota’s ecosystem. Results from these two reports point to overall maintained wetland health, though wetlands in the northern part of the state tend to be healthier than those in the south. Neither assessment detected significant changes in wetland quality between survey cycles, signaling that a no-net loss of vegetation and biological diversity was broadly maintained over time. 

We Are Water MN 2026 tour to hit five select cities

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Minnesota Humanities Center are proud to announce that We Are Water MN is back for its eighth statewide tour of Minnesota. We Are Water MN is a partnership-building and community engagement program that deepens connections between Minnesotans and the water we rely on through a traveling exhibit and public events.

Visitors to the We Are Water MN exhibit learn about water issues statewide and in their community. They also reflect on local stories and the meaning and experiences of water in Minnesota with space to add their own stories. Learning and sharing in this way strengthens Minnesotans’ relationships with water and increases participation in water stewardship activities unique to their community.

Each year, five host sites are selected to display the exhibit and engage community members with its content and one another over an eight-week period. The 2026 tour will include the following locations:

Byron

Feb. 25-April 20, 2026: Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo

St. Paul

April 23-June 14, 2026: Capitol Region Watershed District

Park Rapids

June 18-Aug. 10, 2026: Itasca State Park

Little Falls

Aug. 13-Oct. 5, 2026: Great River Arts

Blaine

Oct. 8-Nov. 30, 2026: Anoka County Northtown Library

We Are Water MN is particularly excited about the opportunity to collaborate with this diverse list of organizations. The opportunity to host the program at a zoo, a watershed district, a state park, an arts organization, and a library is sure to bring a wealth of opportunities for diverse programming and perspectives around water.

Mississippi River

Research on the Mississippi River marks a centennial milestone

In 2026, We Are Water MN will add a focus on the Mississippi River to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first water quality survey of the river in 1926. That survey found a dead ecosystem and initiated a century of efforts to restore it. Now, the river hosts an award-winning fishery and is home to thriving populations of bald eagles and river otters.

We are Water MN is a project of the MPCA and the Minnesota Humanities Center in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society; the Board of Water and Soil Resources; the Minnesota Departments of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources; and University of Minnesota Extension.

We are Water MN is funded by the Clean Water, Land, & Legacy Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008.

TMDLs make water science better

TMDL stands for "total maximum daily load," which refers to the maximum amount of pollution a lake, river, or stream can contain and still meet water quality standards. The MPCA is refining TMDL reports to offer clearer, more focused guidance on where pollutants come from, helping local partners target their efforts to protect water quality.

Recent news releases

Bovey man fined more than $20,000 for stormwater and wetland violations

Derek Vekich of Bovey filled in a wetland with more than 9,000 square feet of unpermitted fill near Trout Lake in Itasca County, according to investigators with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

MPCA takes legal action against Freeway Landfill and Freeway Dump to protect drinking water for nearby cities

After multiple attempts to work with the owners of Freeway Landfill and Freeway Dump, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) initiated a declaratory judgment action against the owners of the facility to protect the drinking water supply of residents of Burnsville and Savage.

In the news

Task force wades into the complexity of water stewardship

For decades, state and local governments, along with water management organizations, have worked to protect and restore the water quality in Minnesota’s 11,842 lakes and 92,000 miles of rivers and streams. Perceptions of how all of that is working out may emerge in the work of a task force in the office of State Attorney General Keith Ellison. The Task Force on the Future of Minnesota’s Water membership reflects the many varied interests and complexity of managing water pollution from nonpoint sources. — MinnPost

Minnesota River restoration, long a labor of love for advocates, could be getting a boost from the state

In 1962, the historian Evan Jones published a book with the title “The Minnesota: Forgotten River.” The waterway has been much less forgotten in recent decades as advocates have worked to reduce pollution from sediment and fertilizers. Cleanup efforts could soon get a boost with state legislation to create a Minnesota River Commission, perhaps as early as next year’s legislative session. — MinnPost

When water speaks through us: Katy Backes Kozhimannil on health, climate, and community

For Katy Backes Kozhimannil, water is intrinsically tied to her life’s work. As a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota with a focus on rural communities, she has made it her life purpose to be “a guardian, a protector of life cycles.” As an Ojibwe woman, she sees water as the ultimate life giver. “For me, there's a parallel between life cycles of humans and our non-human relatives and the cycles of water and how we work together to protect one another,” she said. As the co-director of the University's Rural Health Research Center, Katy knows there are deep roots between water and rural communities in Minnesota. As she sees it, “the effect of climate change as experienced through water is the biggest threat to public health in greater Minnesota and in the metro area. I think it will be and is first felt in more rural areas and communities.” Through her job, she is an advocate for these communities and is especially mindful of the ways that water affects them. But Katy’s connection to and protection of water runs deeper than her day-to-day job. It is part of her calling, she said. “I feel I owe that water — that lake, that land, that space — I owe that water my attention, my voice,” she said. “Because water cannot speak in a way that policymakers understand. So it is a reciprocal relationship. If I value and honor that water — that always accepts me, that I can go to again and again, that is never too tired to hold me or to lift me up — then I need to remember to have that same stance toward the water, toward our lakes: to hold them and to lift them up and to speak for them and use the voice that I have to speak on behalf of the water.”

The MPCA Waterfront Bulletin newsletter welcomes news from partners about
watershed projects, people, and upcoming events throughout Minnesota.

Email submissions to: [email protected].

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is a state agency committed to ensuring that every Minnesotan has healthy air, sustainable lands, clean water, and a better climate.