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St. Louis River Area of Concern Sediment Assessment Areas [Minnesota]

Minnesota Geospatial Commons · 2020 Full Details

Full Details

Title
St. Louis River Area of Concern Sediment Assessment Areas [Minnesota]
Description
The St. Louis River is the second-largest tributary to Lake Superior. The lower estuary culminates in the Duluth-Superior Harbor, which is the largest freshwater seaport in North America. In 1987, concerns over environmental quality conditions prompted the designation of the lower St. Louis River as one of 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). This includes the segment from Cloquet, Minn., to Lake Superior. Due to sediment contamination, the St. Louis River AOC has several impaired uses, including degradation of bottom-feeding invertebrate communities, increased incidence of fish tumors and other abnormalities, fish consumption advisories, and restrictions on dredging. Some sediment-derived contaminants also appear to be carried by the water column to Lake Superior, the most pristine Great Lake. The work products developed were: -Sediment Assessment Area chemistry characterization (dashboards) -Maps of sediment contaminants for multiple depth intervals -Database queries to assist in conducting independent analysis of the sediment contaminant levels in the AOC -Memorandum describing a systematic approach for assigning contaminant-level categories to each assessment area The polygons included in this data product depict boundaries of the St. Louis River Area of Concern sediment assessment areas [SAAs]., Sediment assessment areas were developed as study areas within the St. Louis River estuary-wide sediment characterization study. The areas were later used to help define project areas for habitat restoration and contaminated sediment remediation sites. They were also referenced when doing additional characterization studies for each project. This work is outlined in the Remedial Action Plan for the St. Louis River Area of Concern.
Creator
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Publisher
Minnesota Geospatial Commons
Temporal Coverage
2020-04-03
Rights
None.
Access Rights
Public
Format
Files
Language
English
Date Added
April 26, 2021
Provenance Statement
The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from the Minnesota Geospatial Commons on 2025-08-26.

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  • Citation
    Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (n.d.). St. Louis River Area of Concern Sediment Assessment Areas [Minnesota]. Minnesota Geospatial Commons. https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/1c4a687e-6ec9-4dfa-87d9-7075b5acc55f (dataset)
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