Silver Lake TMDL Implementation Plan

Silver Lake was listed as an impaired water by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on the 2002 303d list. The impaired use is aquatic recreation, with the stressor identified as "nutrient/ eutrophication biological indicators." Silver Lake has a 678.6-acre, fully-developed watershed and is defined as a shallow lake according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). The Silver Lake watershed is located in the southwest portion of the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) and is within the Upper Mississippi Watershed and lies entirely within the North Central Hardwood Forest Ecoregion. Portions of four cities and three counties are contained within the Silver Lake watershed (Figure 1). There are six distinct major subwatersheds to Silver Lake in addition to the direct drainage area around the lake (Figure 2). Figure 2 also depicts areas within the Silver Lake watershed where stormwater is currently not treated. These areas could be the focus of stormwater management for water quality purposes.