Watershed Achievements Report

Lake Superior Basin Watershed Achievements Report 2015
St. Louis River Watershed
HSPF Active Groundwater Refinement
The goal of the St. Louis Watershed was to develop a
more detailed understanding of the impacts of mining
and mine processing operations on the surface water
hydrology of streams in the St. Louis River portion
of the Minnesota Iron Range. This required a better
understanding of the details of the water balance and
water management at Iron Range taconite mining and
processing operations, including the interactions of
surface and ground water. This work effort increased our
understanding of these interactions in concert with the
development of watershed and surface water models of
hydrology and water quality in the St. Louis watershed
and resulted in the development and calibration of a
steady state groundwater flow model for a portion of the
Mesabi Iron Range.
Goals
• The contractor will compile available existing data on
mining practices in part of the Iron Range
• The contractor will construct a steady state
groundwater flow model to be used to constrain the
watershed model
• The contractor will summarize and communicate the
results
Results that count
• The contractor submitted a database of compiled and
evaluated mining related data
• The contractor submitted a calibrated groundwater
flow (GFLOW) model for the Iron Range portion of
interest
• The contractors submitted reports and a presentation
and communicated results at a stakeholders meeting
Financial information
Funding type: Section 319
Grant amount: $108,626
Contact information
Jennifer Olson, Project Manager
MPCA Tetra Tech
P.O. Box 61
Stillwater, MN 55082
651-342-2245,
Jennifer.Olson@tetratech.com
MPCA Project Manager: Chuck Regan
Open pit iron mine in the St. Louis watershed of northeastern Minnesota
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency www.pca.state.mn.us 55