1997-05-01_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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F'or more information on MPCA initiatives, contact Peggy Adelmann (612/296- 7369) or Sylvia McCollor (612/296- 7249) However, the state still needs better water monitoring. Existing monitoring efforts provide valid water-quality assessments of only four percent of Minnesota's river miles and 15 percent of the state's lakes. Similarly, only a small portion of the state's groundwater resources have been adequately examined to characterize conditions and actual or potential problems. The state agencies involved in water monitoring, along with the Metropolitan Council and the University of Minnesota, met through much of 1996 to examine progress in revamping the state's monitoring efforts and to identify and prioritize the most critical remaining needs.The individual elements of this initiative (following) were identified by the agencies ashigh-priority actions needed to fill the gaps iri Minnesota's water-monitoring efforts. They will not do so completely, nor will they provide all the answers to Minnesota's resource questions. But. they represent important steps toward an integrated and comprehensive water monitoring program. The individual elements include cooperative efforts involving two or more agencies, and all involve coordination of state and local monitoring efforts. The results will provide a more complete picture of Minnesota's waters -- a picture that helps ensure that our dollars are spent wisely, leading to state and local water-management programs that are cost-effective and directly accountable to the public they serve. Elements of the 1nltlatlVe Integrated Condition Monitoring for Divers, Streams, and Wetlands. (MPCA) Integrated monitoring uses the combined tools of biology, chemistry, hydrology, and habitat assessment to provide a more comprehensive and more cost- effective assessment of water quality than is possible through traditional water chemistry monitoring alone. It uses recently developed techniques to set "bio- criteria" that measure the health of the aquatic ecosystem directly. And by monitoring at statistically selected sites, it can provide a statistically valid overall picture of state water quality that has not been available before. Funding would. be used to build on work begun by the MPCA and DNR in 1995 and 1996, a highly successful cooperative effort designed to meet the needs of both agencies. The use of integrated monitoring and the development of bio-criteria would be expanded to the whole state, providing needed information onwater-quality conditions, trends, and problems to be used by state and local decision- makers involved in stream and wetland management. 2