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Improved Lake-Quality <br />Monitoring (MPCA) <br />The MPCA's lake monitoring <br />program is used to look at overall <br />trends in the quality of the state's <br />thousands of lakes and provide <br />the scientific information needed <br />to successfully protect them. <br />Funding would replace <br />diminishing federal moneys as <br />well as modestly expand existing <br />efforts. In particular, it would <br />help meet the increased demand <br />for the services of the Lake <br />Assessment Program, a <br />cooperative effort with local <br />groups to characterize a given <br />lake's condition and provide a <br />solid basis for local preservation <br />and restoration activities. <br />Volunteer Monitoring <br />(MPCA) <br />The Citizen Lake-Monitoring <br />Program has volunteers collecting <br />basic water clarity measurements <br />on more than 650 lakes across <br />the state, and has been extremely <br />successfulin providing needed <br />trend information. Equally <br />important, it has involved <br />Minnesota citizens directly in the <br />process of protecting their own <br />local water resources. Funding <br />would initiate and test the <br />practicability of a similar program <br />for the state's streams and rivers, <br />using simple and easily performed <br />.measurements of water quality by <br />student and interested citizen <br />groups. <br />Interagency Fish Contaminant <br />Monitoring (MPCA) <br />The existing fish contaminant <br />program, a cooperative effort of <br />the DNR, the Minnesota <br />Department of Health, and <br />MPCA, works well for the limited <br />purpose of providing site-specific <br />data for the Minnesota Fish <br />Consumption Advisory. Funding <br />would build on and coordinate <br />already existing monitoring <br />programs of the MPCA and DNR, <br />adding chemical analyses of fish <br />tissue, water, and food chains, as <br />well as performing Geographic <br />Information Systems (GIS) <br />characterizations of watersheds, <br />in order to examine both trends <br />and mechanisms in the <br />bioaccumulation ofheavy metals <br />and organic compounds, such as <br />mercury, PCB, and dioxin, in fish. <br />Monitoring Coordination and <br />Data Management (MPCA) <br />The collecting of water- <br />monitoring samples is only one of <br />the steps in providing meaningful <br />water resource information. This <br />funding would be used by the <br />MPCA to provide staff necessary <br />for the rest of the steps. It would <br />help ensure that monitoring is <br />carefully planned and is <br />coordinated with other state and <br />local efforts and that data is <br />collected and stored in a way that <br />will make it easily useable by <br />decision-makers as well as the <br />general public. <br />3 <br />