The Anoka Conservation District monitors stream water quality on most major streams in the county, as well as some of their tributaries including ditches. The purpose of this program is to detect and diagnose water quality problems that may affect recreation, people or wildlife. We place a particular emphasis on monitoring streams that flow into major recreational lakes or rivers. We monitor most streams every 3-6 years, maintaining a rotation such that all of our highest priority waterways receive regular attention. Each monitored stream is tested eight times in a given year. Four of these are during baseflow water levels and four are during or just after storms or >1 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.
The following parameters are tested for each stream or river:
- Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
- Total Phosphorus (TP)
- Total Suspended Solids
Others as specifically needed
pH, DO, turbidity, conductivity, temperature, salinity and temperature were measured using the Horiba Water Checker® U-10 multi-probe. Total phosphorus (TP), chlorides, and total suspended solids are analyzed by an independent laboratory (Braun Intertec). The laboratory provides sample bottles, complete with preservative (H2SO4) for TP analysis. These water samples are kept on ice and delivered to the laboratory within 24 hours. For more information on what these chemical parameters mean, view the ACD's Stream Water Quality Question and Answer sheet (link below).
In total, we have sampled 84 sites on 43 different streams, rivers, and ditches since 1998. Funding for this work comes from watershed districts, watershed management organizations, grants, and in-kind support from the Anoka Conservation District.
This website is a good place for specific water quality information, but you should also check other sources. The same body of water is never monitored by two different agencies at the same time, but monitoring responsibility may have transferred from agency to agency at some time in the past, or limited volunteer data may be available for years when the ACD was not monitoring. After searching this website, the other best source of water quality data is the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's website.
To view or download raw data about a particular stream from this website, use our Data Access tool.