The Minnesota Stormwater Research Council (MSRC) is an organization of stormwater professionals, practitioners, managers, engineers, researchers and others that seeks to facilitate and complete research on urban stormwater management and transfer that knowledge to professionals that can use it to prevent, minimize and mitigate the impacts of runoff. The MSRC is administered by the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center (WRC).
Established in 2016, the goals of the MSRC include:
- Facilitate the completion of needed applied research that enables more informed decisions about the use, management and protection of our water resources in urbanized areas.
- Periodically assess the status of research, identify consensus research priorities, and communicate these to Minnesota’s public and private research agencies and organizations.
- Promote coordination of research goals, objectives and funding among the research agencies and organizations.
Financiers of the MSRC
The MSRC is financially supported by watershed districts and organizations, cities, and private industry. Additional financial support is provided by the U of M Water Resources Center, the Clean Water Fund from the State of Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, the U.S. Geological Survey, Minnesota Sea Grant and the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences.
Financial support in 2022 received from the following:
- Barr Engineering Company
- Capitol Region Watershed District
- City of Bloomington
- City of Edina
- Emmons & Olivier Resources, Inc.
- Mississippi Watershed Management Organization
- Nine Mile Creek Watershed District
- Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District
- South Washington Watershed District
- Stantec
- Upper Mississippi River Source Water Protection Project
- Valley Branch Watershed District
Thank you to these organizations for their financial support. The projects, efforts and new discoveries made would not have been possible without their support.
New financial partners are continually sought. Pooling funds allows the Council to invest in research that no one organization may be able to effective do themselves.
2023 Stormwater research funding support request (PDF)
Contact John Bilotta council administrator for more information.
Request for Proposals (RFP)
Currently accepting research proposals on urban stormwater ponds. The full RFP can be found on our funding opportunities page.
Annual meeting and other resources
July 20, 2023
8:00am - 3:00pm
The program will feature:
Tour of research projects funded by the Council 8am - Noon:
- Stormwater reduction and pollutant sourcing from urban trees
- Iron enhanced sand filters performance and maintenance assessment
- Understanding solids loading in Minnesota stormwater
- Evaluation of high-volume stormwater filtration media effectiveness for removal of phosphorus and other pollutants, and
- The 4 all NEW project investments into urban pond research that began this spring
Minnesota BBQ lunch - Noon - 1:00pm
Annual meeting - 1:00 - 3:00pm
- 2023 Council Annual Report of accomplishments
- Get involved – support the 2023 research fund
- Get involved - nominations for 2024 advisory board members and meet the current board members
- The year ahead including future RFPs and stakeholder input on research priorities
- Technology transfer - bringing research discoveries to practitioners - efforts in extension
- Additional research projects not able to be featured on the tour
If you are only available for the afternoon (1 - 3pm) portion of the meeting, please consider attending virtually using this Zoom Link.