Water Quality:

WLSSD maintains water monitoring and sampling programs to confirm that pollution prevention measures and wastewater treatment are protecting and maintaining water quality. WLSSD discharges cleaned effluent to the St. Louis River. The River is carefully monitored to ensure that water quality is maintained, and to ensure that the water is safe for public contact.

• Industrial pretreatment sampling assesses industrial wastewater discharges, ensuring that WLSSD's industrial customers are not discharging substances that may harm the wastewater treatment process or pass through the process into the St. Louis River.
• WLSSD effluent is monitored continuously to ensure that the treatment plant is meeting water quality permit standards. 19 parameters are monitored, including pH, turbidity, phosphorous, nitrogen and bacteria levels.

All municipal and industrial wastewater systems and discharges are federally regulated under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, as part of the Clean Water Act. WLSSD's NPDES permits are issued by the MPCA as a responsibility delegated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

• Bacteria samples are taken at 12 locations on the Minnesota portion of the St. Louis River each week during the swimming season (May through September).

View live data of WLSSD influent, effluent turbidity and rainfall.

Other local monitoring Programs:

The Minnesota Lake Superior Beach Monitoring Program is administered by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), who works with Cook and Lake County staff to collect samples from 39 locations along the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior and St. Louis River Bay.