Contact: Mary Juhl; mary.juhl@state.mn.us, 612-358-5733
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) is awarding approximately $3.1 million in Water Quality and Storage Program grants to six 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
- Blue Earth Soil & Water Conservation District
- Faribault County
- Lyon County Soil & Water Conservation District (two awards)
- Rice Creek Watershed District
- Yellow Medicine County
The state is experiencing more frequent and intense rainfall events, resulting in negative impacts to agriculture and infrastructure, significant erosion along riverbanks, and declining water quality.
“Adding more water storage to Minnesota’s landscapes helps communities better prepare for flooding and the associated impacts to infrastructure and farming,” BWSR Executive Director John Jaschke said. “Selected projects are strategically located in areas of the state that are especially prone to erosion and flooding.”
The Minnesota Legislature passed bipartisan legislation in 2021 allocating $2 million to BWSR to develop a water storage program to address these challenges. Lawmakers appropriated an additional $17 million from the General Fund to support the program in 2023. Last fall, the program received $21 million in Regional Conservation Partnership Program support from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. BWSR is monitoring ongoing actions and potential disruptions related to federal funds that support this program. This batch of grants is supported solely by state funding sources.
More information about BWSR’s water storage program can be found here. Learn more about the state’s climate work by visiting climate.state.mn.us.