Le Sueur County, as well as many other government agencies, strongly rely on scientific plans and reports to help guide their decisions on water management and other resource management decisions. Without these plans and reports there would be gaps in knowledge about current water quality and biological conditions, where to focus conservation efforts, and what practices should be implemented to improve or protect resources as well as public health.
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
According to the Minnesota Control Pollution Agency, a TMDL is "The maximum amount of a pollutant a body of water can receive without violating water quality standards, and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant’s sources. The TMDL process identifies all sources of a pollutant and determines how much each source must reduce its contribution in order to meet the standard."
TMDL projects that have been completed for Le Sueur County include:
Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS)
According to the Minnesota Control Pollution Agency, a WRAPS is "A watershed approach to restoring and protecting Minnesota’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Intensive water quality monitoring and assessments will be conducted in each major watershed every ten years. Focuses on the watershed’s condition as the starting point for water quality assessment, planning, implementation, and measurement of results. This approach may be modified to meet local conditions, based on factors such as watershed size, landscape diversity, and geographic complexity."
WRAPS projects that have been completed for Le Sueur County include: