Getting to Know Your Watershed

If you live in the Twin cities metro area, you live in the Mississippi River watershed. This means that all water and snow melt runs off land and into the Mississippi River. Before urban development your watershed was covered with oak savannah interspersed with marshland and tall grass prairie. Today concrete, asphalt and roofs cover close to half of the Mississippi River watershed in Minneapolis and St. Paul. These surfaces keep water from being absorbed into the ground. Instead it flows over these surfaces, picking up pollutants and carrying them directly into the Mississippi River, creating a problem called urban runoff.

The good news is that the river is cleaner than it has been in the past several decades. The bad news is that polluted runoff is a major problem. To achieve a clean Mississippi River, citizen action needs to come from you.

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Who's watching the watershed?

Most watersheds cut across city and county boundaries. Minnesota is divided into entities based on watershed boundaries. These entities are now developing and implementing Watershed Management Plans which highlight strategies for identifying water quality problems and finding solutions for improving the beauty and ecological health of the river.

Drain (don't dump)

Be a watershed watcher...
In your YardEye.gif

  • Landscape for cleaner stormwater runoff. Allow water from roofs and driveways to drain into yards where the water can be absorbed.
  • Reduce the amount of concrete or asphalt in your yard.
  • Don't dump anything into the streets or down street drains.

In your Neighborhood:

  • Participate in a river clean up, or organize a project to paint your street drains to say "Don't dump waste / Drains to Mississippi River."
  • Become an advocate for the river and talk to your neighbors to get them excited about a better future for the Mississippi River.


In your WatershedPhone

Add your input to the Water Management Planning going on in your local watershed. Call Anne Weber, Public Works, (651) 266-6245 or Metropolitan Council Environmental Services, Office of Communications, (651) 229-2129.

Click here to return to the WaterShed Resources Home Page

Center for Global Environmental Education
Hamline University Graduate School of Education
1536 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104-1284
Phone: 651-523-2480 Fax: 651-523-2987