Text about the WRC's research portfolio...
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19F-NMR quantification of PFAS levels and binding
Principal investigator: Bill Arnold
Year funded: 2022
Project topics:
A systematic evaluation of fungal enhanced treatment of stormwater pollutants in biofiltration systems
Principal investigator: Nigel Pickering
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: bioretention, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF), salting and sweeping
Adaptive level control systems for maximizing stormwater pond functionality
Principal investigator: Cory Anderson
Year funded: 2024
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater ponds
Aeration/mixing as a remediation option for stormwater pond phosphorus release
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: stormwater ponds
Alternative stormwater sand filter enhancing agents for dissolved phosphorus retention
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF)
Analysis of winter hazard and high salt areas
Principal investigator: Douglas Klimbal
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, pollution prevention and source reduction, salting and sweeping
Assessing the capacity of and identifying effective resources for homeowners, associations (HOAs) and commercial property owners for proper maintenance of stormwater and green infrastructure practices
Principal investigator: Angie Hong
Year funded: 2023
Project topics: policy and social science
Assessing the impact of industrial agriculture on water quantity and quality in the Park Rapids region
Principal investigator: John Nieber
Year funded:
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Assessing the implications of chloride from land application of manure for Minnesota waterways
Principal investigator: Melissa Wilson
Year funded:
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Assessment of stormwater best management practices
Principal investigator: James Anderson
Year funded: 2007
Project topics: bioretention, filter media, modeling, monitoring and mapping, salting and sweeping, stormwater ponds
Assessment of urban stormwater chloride and its impact on surface water trends
Principal investigator: Benjamin Janke
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, salting and sweeping
Atmospheric PFAS: source to sediment
Principal investigator: Alexander Frie
Year funded: 2023
Project topics:
Banking groundwater: managed aquifer recharge
Principal investigator:
Year funded: 2019
Project topics:
Barriers and opportunities for Tribal participation in the Clean Water Act’s TAS
Principal investigator: Afton Clarke-Sather
Year funded: 2026
Project topics:
Biofiltration media optimization – Phase II: Multi-year performance, impacts of road salt, and optimized organic ratio
Principal investigator: Andy Erickson
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: filter media, plants and trees, salting and sweeping
Biofiltration Media Optimization: Phase I
Principal investigator: Andy Erickson
Year funded: 2018
Project topics: bioretention, filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF), plants and trees
Bioretention media for supporting plant growth and limiting nutrient export
Principal investigator: Andrew Erickson
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: bioretention, filter media, plants and trees, salting and sweeping
Can earthworms reduce PAH concentrations in pond sediments: A feasibility study
Principal investigator: Poornima Natarajan
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), stormwater ponds
Capture of gross solids and sediment by pretreatment practices for bioretention
Principal investigator: Andrew Erickson
Year funded: 2017
Project topics: bioretention, pretreatment
Capturing contaminants of emerging concern with biofiltration
Principal investigator: Andy Erickson
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: bioretention, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF), stormwater characterization
Characterization of phosphorus release from ponds
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2016
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater characterization, stormwater ponds
Comparing the Effects of Winter Rye and Oat-Radish Mix Cover Crops in Southern Minnesota Agroecosystems
Principal investigator: Anna Cates
Year funded: 2026
Project topics:
Cultivating Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS)
Principal investigator: Jeffrey Peterson
Year funded: 2017
Project topics:
Detecting phosphorus release from stormwater ponds to guide management and design
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater ponds
Determining which iron minerals in iron-enhanced sand filters remove phosphorus from stormwater runoff
Principal investigator: Beth Fisher
Year funded: 2017
Project topics: filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF)-
Developing a multi-proxy varve chronology at Steel Lake, MN, USA to examine quantitative correlation to local hydroclimate and improve predictive modeling
Principal investigator: Byron Steinman and William Daniels
Year funded: 2026
Project topics: 
Developing a street sweeping credit for stormwater phosphorus source reduction
Principal investigator: Sarah Hobbie
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, pollution prevention and source reduction, salting and sweeping
Development of new tools for detecting aquatic invasive plants
Principal investigator: Grant Vagle
Year funded:
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Draft stormwater geospatial data standard: Pilot and proof-of-concept
Principal investigator: Geoffrey Maas
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping
Effective impervious and BMP effectiveness at watershed scale
Principal investigator: Benjamin Janke
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: bioretention, modeling, monitoring and mapping, plants and trees, pollution prevention and source reduction, pretreatment
Effectiveness of remediation techniques on pond phosphorus release rates
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2023
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, salting and sweeping, stormwater ponds
Effectiveness of sump manholes for pretreatment particulate removal
Principal investigator: John A. Chapman
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: pretreatment
Enhanced degradation of stormwater petrochemicals within the rhizosphere of rain garden bioretention cells
Principal investigator: Paige Novak
Year funded: 2008
Project topics: bioretention, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), plants and trees
Enhancement and validation of a stormwater pond assessment tool
Principal investigator: Poornima Natarajan
Year funded: 2023
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, plants and trees, stormwater ponds
Equipping municipalities with climate change data to inform stormwater management
Principal investigator: Ryan Noe
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping-
Evaluating the Impacts of Nitrogen Management, Cover Crop, and Living Mulch Schemes on Crop Yield and Water Quality in Minnesota Corn and Soybean
Principal investigator: Fabian Fernandez
Year funded: 2026
Project topics: 
Evaluation of media effectiveness for removal of phosphorus and other pollutants in an active, high-volume stormwater filtration BMP
Principal investigator: Andy McCabe
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: bioretention, filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF)
Evaluation of microbial and chemical contaminant removals in different stormwater reuse systems
Principal investigator: Satoshi Ishii
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: bacteria, algae, and other biological contaminants, modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater characterization, stormwater reuse-
Fate and transport of phosphorus and HABs from stormwater ponds: Understanding risk of internal phosphorus load and harmful algal bloom export from stormwater ponds to downstream waterbodies
Principal investigator: Dendy Lofton
Year funded: 2023
Project topics: bacteria, algae, and other biological contaminants, stormwater ponds 
Field evaluation of stormwater best management practices to characterize the comprehensive contaminant removal performance of biochar-augmented filter media
Principal investigator: Joe Magner
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), filter media
Future of Minnesota drinking water
Principal investigator: A. Marcelle Lewandowski
Year funded: 2018
Project topics:
Genomic surveillance of zebra mussel populations
Principal investigator: Daryl Gohl
Year funded:
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Hydrodynamic resilience to invasive mussels
Principal investigator: Miki Hondzo
Year funded:
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Identifying characteristics of invasion prone waterbodies
Principal investigator: Nick Phelps
Year funded:
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Identifying sources of contaminants in urban stormwater and evaluation of their removal efficacy across a continuum of urban best management practices
Principal investigator: Heiko Schoenfuss
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: bacteria, algae, and other biological contaminants, stormwater characterization, stormwater reuse
Identifying stormwater pond design and management features that sustain long term performance
Principal investigator: Jacques Finlay
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, plants and trees, stormwater ponds
Improving snow storage performance
Principal investigator: Douglas Klimbal
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, pollution prevention and source reduction, salting and sweeping-
Inspiring community action for stormwater management
Principal investigator: Mae Davenport
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: policy and social science 
Investigating whether soil health systems improve field workability and quality of life
Principal investigator: Anna Cates
Year funded:
Project topics:
Iron-enhanced sand filters performance and maintenance meta-analysis
Principal investigator: John Gulliver
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: bioretention, filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF), modeling, monitoring and mapping
Legacy P and sediment across Upper Midwest
Principal investigator: Diana Karwan
Year funded: 2022
Project topics:
Leveraging Minnesota's stormwater data for improved modeling and management
Principal investigator: Jacques Finlay
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping
Local and landscape-level effectiveness of aquatic invasive species prevention
Principal investigator: Nick Phelps
Year funded:
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Managing urban pond vegetation to enhance water quality benefits
Principal investigator: Jacques Finlay
Year funded: 2023
Project topics: plants and trees, stormwater ponds
Managing water quality and invasive macrophytes to promote healthy native aquatic plant communities
Principal investigator: Ray Newman
Year funded: 2021
Project topics:
Minnesota State Drinking Water Plan
Principal investigator: Anne Nelson
Year funded: 2022
Project topics:
Monitoring methods for prioritization and assessment of stormwater practices
Principal investigator: Bruce Wilson
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater characterization
Next generation AIS monitoring: comparing the speed, sensitivity, specificity, cost, and throughput of multiple eDNA detection methods
Principal investigator: Satoshi Ishii
Year funded:
Project topics:
Nitrogen rate, cover crops, and living mulches: Their impact on irrigated corn and soybean production and the environment
Principal investigator: Fabian Fernandez
Year funded:
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Optimizing MinION field protocols for detecting aquatic invasive plants in Upper Mississippi River Basin
Principal investigator: Grant Vagle
Year funded:
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Performance evaluation for a stormwater treatment train incorporating sedimentation and geomedia-augmented biofiltration
Principal investigator: Bridget Ulrich
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: bioretention, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), filter media, Iron enhanced sand filter (IESF), stormwater characterization
Plants for stormwater design, interactive selection tool for stormwater professionals and the public
Principal investigator: John Bly
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, plants and trees, policy and social science
Pollutant removal and maintenance assessment of underground filtration systems
Principal investigator: Todd Shoemaker
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: filter media, modeling, monitoring and mapping
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in stormwater detention ponds
Principal investigator: Matt Simcik
Year funded: 2016
Project topics: contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater characterization, stormwater ponds
Pond treatment with spent lime to control phosphorus release from sediments
Principal investigator: Greg Wilson
Year funded: 2018
Project topics: stormwater ponds-
Process guided machine learning for water temperature prediction
Principal investigator: Vipin Kumar
Year funded:
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Protecting groundwater: An assessment of hydrophysical and social risks
Principal investigator: Amit Pradhananga
Year funded:
Project topics:-
Quantifying heterogeneous impacts of invasive zebra mussels on walleye habitat, food webs, and mercury concentrations
Principal investigator: Gretchen Hansen
Year funded:
Project topics: 
Remotely-sensed water quality of Michigan Lakes: Analysis of lake water clarity and algal biomass using Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellite imagery
Principal investigator: Leif Olmanson
Year funded:
Project topics:-
Research and development toward a linked data system and foundational knowledge network for the Internet of Water
Principal investigator: Chris Filstrup
Year funded:
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Review of the Minnesota Department of Health contaminants of emerging concern program process for selecting chemicals
Principal investigator: A. Marcelle Lewandowski
Year funded: 2014
Project topics:
Sediment-facilitated transport of infectious prions in Minnesota surface waters
Principal investigator: Diana Karwan
Year funded:
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Snow hydrology in Minnesota headwater catchments
Principal investigator: Xue Feng
Year funded:
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Stormwater pond forebay design, cost, and effectiveness with comparisons to other pretreatment options
Principal investigator: John Chapman
Year funded: 2025
Project topics: pretreatment, stormwater ponds
Stormwater reduction and pollutant sourcing from urban trees
Principal investigator: Xue Feng
Year funded: 2022
Project topics: bioretention, modeling, monitoring and mapping, plants and trees, pollution prevention and source reduction, stormwater characterization
Stormwater research roadmap and framework for priority needs for the next decade
Principal investigator: Lawrence Baker and John Chapman
Year funded: 2016
Project topics: policy and social science
Temporal dynamics of pathogens and antibiotic resistance in raw and treated stormwater
Principal investigator: Satoshi Ishii
Year funded: 2019
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, stormwater characterization, stormwater reuse-
Tribal cultural ecosystem values in the Great Lakes Basin
Principal investigator: Mae Davenport
Year funded: 2026
Project topics: 
Understanding solids loading in Minnesota stormwater
Principal investigator: John A. Chapman
Year funded: 2020
Project topics: modeling, monitoring and mapping, pretreatment, stormwater characterization
Urban flood prediction from limited data: a data-model integrated approach
Principal investigator: Kun Zhang
Year funded:
Project topics:
Urban stormwater pond research literature review
Principal investigator: Mike Ament
Year funded: 2021
Project topics: stormwater ponds
Water chemistry and Manoomin health; a snapshot of the Ottertail Watershed
Principal investigator: Cara Santelli
Year funded:
Project topics: