Water Quality

Chisago County

Chisago County implements a Water Quality Monitoring Program to monitor lakes for water clarity, nutrient levels, watercolor, and algae abundance. Yearly monitoring provides a basis for determining the improvement or degradation of water quality over time. Chisago County staff monitor the following lakes each year: East Rush, Fish, Horseshoe, Mandall, North Goose, Rabour, South Goose and West Rush Lakes. Visit the monitoring reports below to see how the lakes rank from highest water quality to lowest quality.

Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District

One of the goals of the Lake Improvement District is to preserve, protect and enhance water quality within the Chisago Lakes Watershed. This goal is accomplished through monitoring lakes for water quality, support adoption of uniform water protection ordinances, and participation in projects that will help meet the goals of the Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes.

Chisago County staff monitor the following lakes located in the Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District each year: Chisago, Green, Kroon, Little, Little Green, North Center, North Lindstrom, South Center, South Lindstrom and Spider Lakes. Volunteers monitor Bloom, Emily, Linn, Mattson, Ogren, Pioneer, School, Swamp and Wallmark Lakes. Visit the monitoring reports below to see how the lakes rank from highest water quality to lowest quality.

  1. North & South Center Lakes - Water Quality Success

North and South Center Lakes - Water Quality Success

Let’s celebrate the delisting or removal of North and South Center Lakes from the Impaired Waters List!  Thank you to lakeshore and non-lakeshore residents, Center Lakes Association, Cities of Center City and Lindstrom, the Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District and the Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District, who together, have contributed to this success!

Every two years, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency publishes an Impaired Waters list of Minnesota lakes that do not meet water quality standards.   Water quality standards protect our water resources for fishing, swimming, plants and animals.  They are a way to measure lakes and rivers that are already polluted or healthy ones that need protection.  In 2008, both North and South Center Lakes were added to the Impaired Waters list.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that in 2007 the lakes were healthy and in 2008 they weren’t.  Rather, enough water quality data had been collected to support the listing.  

Since that time many individuals and organizations stepped up to improve the water quality of North & South Center Lakes (along with all the other lakes in our area).  Water quality improvements do not start at the shoreline, rather the work takes place in the watershed area that drains into the lakes.  Landowners who take the initiative to call for a site visit, install projects, and take on long term maintenance of these Best Management Practices are the true champions in this feat of delisting not one, but two waterbodies within a watershed!

For information on these projects, and many more, go to

MN Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR)

Chisago County Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD)

Lake Improvement District

Aquatic Invasive Species

View the water quality monitoring results for North & South Center Lakes for 2020

  1. Lake Water Quality Monitoring & Reports
  1. Total Maximum Daily Load Studies
  1. Ways to Improve Water Quality in Local Lakes