The MPCA, in collaboration with local governments — including soil and water conservation districts, watershed districts, and counties — other state agencies, and Tribes, employs a watershed approach to restoring and protecting Minnesota's rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Money to accelerate efforts to monitor, assess, study, and restore impaired waters, and to protect unimpaired waters is funded by Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment.

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Water monitoring is conducted in each watershed every 10 years to show trends in water quality and the impact of any restoration or protection actions. The strength of the watershed approach is that it focuses holistically on the watershed's condition as the scientific basis for planning, implementation, and measurement of results. This approach is tailored to meet local conditions and needs, based on factors such as watershed size, landscape diversity, and geographic complexity.

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What is a WRAPS?

Mandated by the Minnesota State Legislature (click here for a link to the statute), the Watershed Approach requires each of Minnesota's 81 major watersheds to go through a 10 year cycle to monitor and collect data on the health of the waterbodies on a watershed level, assess the data, use the data collected and assessed to develop strategies to restore waterbodies that are impaired and protect waterways that are healthy, and then carry out those strategies developed (the WRAPS).  The 10 year cycle is continuous, so at the end of the first 10 year cycle, the cycle will begin again and the waterbodies will be monitored again to determine if water quality improved or if new impairments have developed and the strategies will be reassessed and redefined as needed.  

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The first round of the Le Sueur River WRAPS was approved in 2015 (link) and a monitoring and assessment update was completed in 2021 (link).

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For More Information

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Le Sueur River Watershed Website
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/watersheds/le-sueur-river
 

Le Sueur River Watershed and Restoration Protection Strategy Report (MPCA, 2015)
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/wq-ws4-10a.pdf
 

Summary, Le Sueur Watershed and Restoration and Protection Strategies (MPCA, 2015)
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/wq-ws4-10b.pdf

Le Sueur River Watershed Assessment and Trends Update (MPCA, 2021)
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/wq-ws3-07020011c.pdf

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MPCA Watershed approach to restoring and protecting water quality

https://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/watershed-approach-restoring-and-protecting-water-quality

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