Turbidity TMDL for Chippewa River Watershed

The Chippewa River is one of 13 major tributaries of the Minnesota River. The Chippewa River Watershed drains a 2,080 square mile, 1,331,200 acre basin. The counties in this basin include portions of Otter Tail, Grant, Douglas, Stevens, Pope, Swift, Kandiyohi, Chippewa and a very small portion of Stearns. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has listed 9 stream reaches in the Chippewa River watershed as impaired waters for exceeding the turbidity standard for aquatic life and recreation, which is currently set at 25 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of water caused by suspended and dissolved substances in the water column.