WATERSHED PARTNERS: A COLLABORATION THAT WORKS

With more that 900 lakes, three major rivers and abundant aquifers, clean water is a lifeblood flowing through the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area.Since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, nearly one billion dollars have been spent to upgrade wastewater treatment plants and to reduce pollution entering the plants from industries in the Twin Cities metro area. Metropolitan Council Environmental services (MCES) has maintained a near-perfect record of compliance with water quality discharge permits for over a decade, and since 1982 has significantly reduced the amount of metal waste in the system. In addition, the recent completion of a 10-year, 332 million Combined Sewer Overflow project also greatly improved the quality of the river.