The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is proposing to make some revisions to Minnesota Rules Chapters 7050, 7052 and 7053. The amendments proposed for this rulemaking are the result of the 2008 public review of Minnesota’s water quality standards. The scope of this rulemaking will address six areas of the water quality standards:
- River Eutrophication — numeric nutrient standards for rivers, streams, the Mississippi River pools and Lake Pepin.
- Total Suspended Solid (TSS) — replacement of the existing standard for water turbidity with more scientifically accurate, region-specific TSS standards.
- Human Health Methods — updates to the methods used for establishing the Class 2 chronic water quality standards to protect human health.
- Process for listing Class 2A waters as cold water communities/trout waters — refine the current basis for classifying Class 2A waters to also include biological information on the aquatic communities.
- Class 3 Waters — update the basis for identifying Class 3 waters and remove the numeric standards.
- Other changes to use classifications — regular review and updates to Class 1 and Class 7 Limited Resource Value Waters.
The MPCA anticipates that rulemaking will proceed on the following schedule:
- Public Informational meetings — Summer 2013
- Publish Proposed Rules and Notice of Hearing — Fall 2013
- Public Hearings — Winter 2013/2014
- Rules effective — Spring 2014