There have been a number of water-related publications that may be of interest to Anoka County agencies, municipalities, residents, and others released in the past few weeks. Additionally, a couple of announcements were made by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

Annoucements:

The MPCA is hosting a live webinar on engineered/bioretention media on Wednesday, May 26th from 9:30 to 11 am. This presentation features five Minnesota stormwater professionals discussing their work with media amendments and designs to retain pollutants. There will also be a short update on how this information is being incorporated into the Minnesota Stormwater Manual.​ 1.5 pdh is offered for attending this webinar. Click here if you would like to join the webinar or if you want more information. If you have questions, contact Mike Trojan at mike.trojan@state.mn.us.

There are two upcoming smart salting training opportunities:

• MPCA Smart Salting Property Management Training: Tuesday, June 8th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
• MPCA Smart Salting Assessment tool (SSAt) Level 2 Certification Training: Thursday, July 8th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

For more information on these training opportunities, and to register, click here to read the release from the MPCA.

Lastly, MDH announced that the annual stakeholder meeting for the Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) initiative will be held virtually via WebEx on Thursday, July 8th at 3 pm. Each year, the Health Risk Assessment Unit develops an annual contaminant review work plan for the CEC initiative. This process includes holding a stakeholder meeting to discuss and solicit input on a draft chemical review work plan for the upcoming fiscal year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022). The meeting is open to the public. More details can be found on the Contaminants of Emerging Concern website.

Publications:

Yesterday, the Summer 2021 Waterline, the official newsletter of the Drinking Water Protection Section of MDH, was published online. The Waterline is a quarterly newsletter for water operators, city officials, and others interested in news related to public water systems in Minnesota. The Waterline includes updates on training sessions along with a registration form for various operator schools as well as feature stories of interest to those in the drinking-water profession. Click here to read the newsletter.

On Tuesday, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization published their May 2021 newsletter, which includes project updates, yard care tips, new videos, and more. Read the newsletter here.

Last week, the MPCA published the latest edition of MN Stormwater News, with lots of great information related to stormwater and MS4 permits! Click here to read it.

The Spring 2021 Noncom Notes was published late last month by the Minnesota Department of Health’s Noncommunity Public Water Supply Unit. Included in the newsletter is lots of good information for noncommunity public water suppliers. The newsletter is available here.

Lastly, also published late last month is the April 2021 On Point newsletter. Published by the MPCA, On Point contains news and updates for wastewater discharge permit holders. There are lots of articles in this newsletter, so be sure to check it out by clicking here!