Approximately 700,000 people live in the Minnesota River basin. These two features help explain the poor water quality and loss of wildlife habitat in the Minnesota River basin. Local Water Quality Goals Goals for the river clean-up are often driven by concerns about local water quality. These concerns have less to do with water quality standards and more to do with quality of life. People want to use and enjoy the rivers.
People are also concerned about specific areas within the broader watershed.
For instance, there may be strong local concern about an individual lake or small stream. These concerns can be used to develop local water quality goals as citizens and landowners develop local organizations which work cooperatively through individual county Comprehensive Local Water Plans and watershed management projects. After a WILL watershed management plan is developed in each of the major watersheds of the Minnesota River Basin, its goals and objectives will become part of individual county water plans. While local perceptions about the river are important, the state and federal governments have developed specific water quality standards for rivers that indicate the extent of pollution. Water quality in the Minnesota River and its tributaries has been monitored by collecting several hundred samples at various locations by state and federal agencies for the last 30 or so years.