ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) is awarding approximately $2.5 million in Water Quality and Storage Program grants to 10 local governments for work that improves water quality and helps make landscapes more resilient to severe weather events in a changing climate.
Grant recipients include:
- Area II Minnesota River Basin Projects
- Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District
- Cottonwood County
- Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District
- Isanti County Soil and Water Conservation District
- Le Sueur County Soil and Water Conservation District
- Lower Minnesota River Watershed District
- Minnehaha Creek Watershed District
- Nicollet County Soil and Water Conservation District
- Yellow Medicine County Soil and Water Conservation District
The state is experiencing more frequent and intense rainfall events, resulting in negative impacts to agricultural land and public infrastructure, significant erosion along riverbanks, and declining water quality.
“Increasing water storage on Minnesota landscapes helps communities better prepare for flooding and the associated impacts to infrastructure and farming,” BWSR Executive Director John Jaschke said. “These projects are strategically located in areas of the state that are especially prone to erosion and flooding.”