Project Overview
Township water testing began in 1988 to bring low cost analysis of drinking water to rural families in Brown and Nicollet Counties.

Between June 1988 and April 1989, all townships sponsored clinics for local families, and water was analyzed for nitrate levels and for the presence of coliform bacteria. Volunteers from the townships and counties have repeated this testing at three-year intervals since 1991.

Beginning in 1990, a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency allowed Brown, Nicollet, and Cottonwood Counties to take a closer look at the sources and extent of groundwater contamination and to begin programs to protect and improve the groundwater. This project, the Brown-Nicollet-Cottonwood Clean Water Partnership Groundwater Analysis and Improvement Project, extended through 1998. (Consulting and testing of rural wells for nitrates and bacteria continue today.)

In 1998, a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health allowed the Brown, Nicollet, and Cottonwood Counties to complete a database with well construction information, geologic data, and water testing results. The Minnesota Geological Survey assisted the project by finding 2,188 wells throughout Nicollet County. Geographic Information System technology made possible the creation of maps and charts showing the status of the groundwater. This work was completed in 2002, and these “portraits” of our drinking water influences are available for review by the public.